Jaune in the Machine
by H3ctic
Summary: Computers were where Jaune was comfortable, not with people. He made into Beacon, but was admittedly over his head. Hopefully, a newly awakened Aura and emerging Semblance would get him through alive. Inspired by ThePhatomScribe's 'Viral'
1. Chapter 1

He had made it. He was at Beacon.

Sure, his means gaining admission weren't exactly _legal_, per se, but in his defence, Vale's cybersecurity was so archaic! He had seen better protection on emails! Now admittedly, those emails had been carrying highly confidential information from the Atlas military, but still! _Emails_!

It had taken him all of 20 minutes to forge a believable transcript to get him admitted without standing out, bypass the CCT firewall with a spoofed 24-bit identification key (Only 24-bit! Literally 3 seconds to brute force it!), acquire some falsified letters of commendation (with matching e-signature, of course) from, unfortunately, now dead private trainers, and file it all from a proxy server in Vacuo!

Now, he could _certainly_ get arrested for this, but no one had ever discovered him. _He_ was the man who got copies of the prototyping stage data of the Polendina Project for crying out loud! If they hadn't discovered him then, they never would. Besides, what did it matter? He was finally going to become a _Huntsman_.

Jaune tore his eyes from the high spires and towering, well, towers of Beacon Academy as the sharp crack of an explosion went off to his left. He scanned along the gently curving path until he spotted the cause: two girls of similar height with pale skin faced each other, one in black and red, the other in white, both with hair coloured similarly to their outfits.

The one in white stamped a foot, glowering at the one in red as she tucked her head and fiddled with her fingers, a display of submission and discomfort even _he_ could detect.

"Unbelievable!" the white one shouted in anger, the breeze carrying away the lingering smoke from the explosion, and pushing a little glass vial of red powder along the floor until it was stopped by the black boot of a third woman.

The woman stooped to collect the vial, never taking her eyes from her book until the vial was at her face, where she stopped reading to observe it, then after a moment, flit her eyes in the direction of the original pair.

She was taller than the other women, and wore purple leggings, but was otherwise exclusive to black and white. This colour scheme seemed to remain consistent with her pale skin and long black hair, which was adorned with a large bow, which, despite the breeze, and her rather rapid movement, remained static. However, the moment her eyes moved from the vial to the pair, Jaune watched it twitch.

A Faunus, he decided, one with an additional pair of large ears, if he was able to see the bow move as it had. He could think of no other valid explanation for such artificial movements. She was hiding the fact, though if what he'd heard of Faunus discrimination was correct, it was understandable that she would want to avoid such confrontations.

"This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" the girl in white continued, unaware of the secret Faunus that strode towards them. Jaune trailed slowly, willing to let the interaction play out so that he may observe, and hopefully develop some degree of competency in standard human reactions. Snark and sarcasm would not carry him far.

"I'm really, _really_ sorry," the girl in red returned, her eyes darting to the woman she seemed to have offended, before returning to the ground just as quickly.

"You complete _dolt_!" White insulted, "What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little _young_ to be attending Beacon?" she accused.

"Well I-I-"

"This isn't your ordinary combat school; it's not just sparring and practice, you know. We're here to fight _monsters_, so… Watch where you're going!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry, _Princess_," Red returned defensively.

"It's 'Heiress', actually," the Faunus interjected. "Weiss Schnee; heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

"Finally," Weiss said smugly, "some recognition."

"The same company infamous for its controversial labour forces, and questionable business partners," the Faunus continued, unperturbed.

"Wha- How dare th-!" Weiss stammered, as the girl in red giggled quietly. "The nerve of-" She strode towards the Faunus, before snatching the vial from her hand and turning on her heel to walk stiffly away.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Red called at her retreating figure, before sighing. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day… So! What's-" She turned to the Faunus, only to watch her walk away like Weiss had, but in the opposite direction.

Red collapsed to her knees slowly, then gently lay onto her back. "Welcome to Beacon," she muttered dejectedly.

Jaune quickly stepped forward, leaning down slightly and offering a hand. "Uh, hi! I'm Jaune… Are you okay?" he asked.

"Ruby," she returned, taking the offered hand and allowing him to help her to her feet, "And I'll be okay."

Maybe he could help her feel better.

"Your hair is very pretty," he told her.

He had initially thought it black, but now that he was closer, he could see it was actually a very dark red, that slowly became brighter and more vibrant as it approached the ends.

"W-what?!" she exclaimed.

He said something wrong. Her cheeks were going red, that means she's angry, doesn't it? He made her angry. He must have offended her with the hair comment. He only just met her and he'd already practically insulted her! What was wrong with him?! He needed to fix this!

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! I wanted to make you feel better and my sisters like compliments so I just thought- I'm sorry…" he finished lamely.

"N-no!" Ruby stammered, "You didn't offend me, I was just surprised is all… I'm sorry for over-reacting. I'm not good at this whole "socialising" thing; I'd much rather talk about weapons… and now I sound like a weirdo, great going Ruby," she rambled, eyes down, kicking her feet idly.

"No! I know what you mean. I don't think you're weird. I'm not good at talking to people either, I'm much more comfortable with a computer."

"Computers?" she asked, looking up to him.

"Yeah! They just… make sense, you know? They're made to do a job, and they always do that job. And if something goes wrong, you can find the problem and fix it! People aren't like that though; they're always so confusing, and you can't ever fix all the problems… Am I making any sense?"

"Yes! I understand perfectly!" Ruby beamed at him. "I feel the same way about weapons! There's so many different types, and they're all so cool! They can do so many cool things, and they all have things they're good at! It's why I love my Crescent Rose so much!"

Ruby grabbed a large red case from the small of her back, and unfurled it. Jaune watched it extend into a massive scythe, longer than she was tall by a significant degree.

The weapon was a beautiful display of craftsmanship.

A wide smile of pride was stuck on her face. "It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle!"

"Large calibre," he mumbled, looking at the barrel, "Is it a .50?" She nodded. "A straight-pull bolt. Is it a dual-action too?" he asked.

She grinned wide at his observation. "Yep! Took _forever_ to convince the teachers at Signal to let me have a straight-pull bolt with a gas release valve on it. Something about budget; I didn't really listen." She giggled.

"With a barrel that long, it must have some incredible range," he mused.

"She sure does! 853 metres per second muzzle velocity, and effective out to 1,800 metres!" she boasted. "What about you?" she asked, peering at the blade on his hip, "What have you got?"

"Ah, nothing special," he admitted, drawing the sword. "It was my great-great-grandfather's, so it doesn't suit me very well. He used it to fight in the War. Oh, and the scabbard expands into a shield," he said, demonstrating the sole mechashifting capability it had. "Makes it easier to carry."

"Wouldn't it weight the same though?"

"Yeah, but I don't bump it into things quite as often."

She giggled again, before turning her face away and kicking her feet shyly. "I could, y'know, maybe help you make a new one?" she offered, "Only if you want to though…"

He blinked in surprise. "You would do that for me? Even when we've only just met?"

"Yeah!" she affirmed strongly, "I just, I dunno… You _understand_ me. Plus, I really like making weapons!" She grinned brightly.

"I'd love your help," he agreed with a smile, "I wonder if Beacon has its own forges?"

"Probably. Speaking of Beacon... do you know where we're supposed to go?" she asked.

"Uh, no. But I can check! Hopefully..." he answered, whipping his scroll from his pocket.

He navigated through the little device, and grinned as he located the information he had hoped to find.

"Here we are! A map!" he declared, showing her proudly.

"Oh cool! How'd you get it?" she asked curiously, drawing her own scroll and returning Crescent Rose to her back.

"They're available on the student portal. Not too hard to get," he informed.

"The student portal? But wouldn't you need to be a student to get into there?"

"Uhh, please forget about it?"

"I think I could do that," she hummed, "if you sent me that map, of course," she replied cheekily.

"Sure!" He held out his scroll, and she tapped hers to his. He then sent the map to the newly acquired contact information of one Ruby Rose.

"Cool. So, got any ideas of what kind of weapon you want?"

He thought about it for a moment. Why not a video game favourite?

"Do you know what a railgun is?"

* * *

"Ruby! Over here!" Yang called to her younger sister, spotting her enter the auditorium while chatting with a tall blond boy. "There's free spots here!"

It seemed her totally-not-ditching tactic had worked. Her baby sister had made a friend!

Ruby started, then spotted her. She said a few words to the blond boy, then pointed at her, and they set off towards Yang.

"Hey Yang!" Ruby said as she got close, before turning to the boy, "Jaune, this is Yang, my sister. Yang, this is Jaune."

He looked harmless enough. Tall, but lanky. He was also keeping his eyes on her face; wasn't leering at her figure, not even discreetly. He was also pretty cute, if not her type.

She approved of her sister's choice.

"'Sup," she greeted with a grin, sticking a hand out to shake.

"Uh, hi. Nice to meet you!" he returned awkwardly, grabbing her hand and shaking it in return.

A firm grip, if not particularly strong.

Yang returned to her seat, Ruby plopped into the one next to her, and Jaune in the one after.

Ruby turned back to her new friend, and began speaking.

"So. How big are we talking?"

"Uh, like, 18 centimetres, I think," he answered after a moment of thought, a little unsure.

Hang on a second. They couldn't be talking about what she thought they were talking about, could they?

"Seriously? How the hell are we gonna fit that in?" Ruby said.

It couldn't be! It was her innocent little sister! She must be misunderstanding something here!

"It'll be okay," Jaune reassured. "We don't have to rush it."

Okay, what the _fuck_ was going on?!

"Geez, who knew it'd be this hard to fit a railgun into a longsword." Ruby whined. "The capacitor is sooo annoying."

Yang released the white knuckled grip on the chair she didn't realise she had and slumped back into the seat.

Weapons. Of course it was weapons. This was _Ruby_ she was talking about.

"_I_ did," Jaune countered, "I told you _exactly_ that."

"So, Ruby," Yang interjected, "How's your first day going, little sister?"

Ruby's expression soured. "You mean since you ditched me," She totally didn't "and I exploded?"

"Yikes. Meltdown already?"

"No I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! There was some fire, and I-I think some ice?"

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang teased.

Ruby scoffed. "I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, I then I _exploded_, and then she yelled again, and I felt really, really bad and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me."

"You!" Weiss shouted from in front of Ruby's seat.

"Oh god!" Ruby leapt from her seat and into Yang's arms, "It's happening again!"

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" she accused.

"Oh my god you really exploded." Yang remarked.

"It was an accident," Ruby said, before climbing out of Yang's hold and onto her feet. "It was an accident!" she repeated louder, now directed at Weiss.

Weiss thrust a pamphlet towards Ruby's face.

"What's this?" the girl asked, confused.

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee family highly encourages our customers to read and familiarise themselves with this easy to follow guide for dust applications and practices in the field," Weiss droned.

"Uhh…"

"Do you really want to start making things up to me?"

"Absolutely?"

"Read this and don't ever speak to me again."

Yang stepped forward, and Jaune followed, taking the pamphlet from the unreactive young girl.

"Look, uh…" Yang began, rubbing the back of her neck, "Sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"

"Yeah! Great idea sis," Ruby quickly agreed, before clearing her throat and offering a hand. "Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies," she offered.

"Yeah!" Weiss agreed with false enthusiasm, "And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond and… scraggly back there," she said, gesturing at Jaune, who was busy flipping through the pamphlet.

"Huh?" he said dumbly, looking up to the collective women now looking over at him.

"Wow, really?" Ruby asked enthusiastically, completely missing the thick sarcasm.

Weiss blinked.

"No."

A throat clearing rang through the auditorium.

"I'll… keep this brief," came the masculine voice of the man on stage through the speakers mounted on the walls, "You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step," he finished cryptically.

The students gathered murmured quietly.

The man left the stage, and the woman who had stood behind him stepped up to the microphone.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight," she directed, "Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

"He seemed… kinda off," Yang observed.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there," Ruby added.

Jaune agreed. He truly was a strange man.

* * *

"It's like a bi-ig slumber party!" Yang concluded, her thoughts directed at the quietly conversing duo.

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys, though," Ruby said in return. "No offense Jaune."

"Hmm? Oh, it's fine. I understand. My parents were never fond of my sisters hanging out with boys."

"Well I know _I _do," Yang remarked unashamedly, releasing something akin to a purr as she surveyed the mostly shirtless male students.

"Ya-ang," Ruby whined, a light flush on her cheeks, "With Jaune here?"

"Don't worry sis," Yang replied with a smirk, "He's all yours."

She flushed harder, but didn't respond.

Yang didn't press her. "What's that?" she instead asked, observing the sheet of paper beneath Ruby's hand.

Her left hand held the pencil, Jaune noted.

"A letter back to the gang at Signal," Ruby responded, "I promised to tell them all about Beacon, and how things are going."

"Aw, that's so cute!"

"Shut up!" Ruby demanded, tossing a pillow into Yang's face. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here," she said sullenly.

"What about him?" Yang asked, pointing to him.

"Apart from Jaune," she rectified, "How about you anyway? Do you have any friends here?"

"Ah, no," he admitted. "I never really had any friends. I was the weird, smart kid that people didn't talk to."

Ruby suppressed a wince at the answer.

"Look," Yang began, "It's only been one day. I'm sure things'll get better. Trust me. You've got friends all around you, you just haven't met them yet."

"Oh! My mom says something really similar actually!" Jaune exclaimed, "She says that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet, which I think is probably true. I mean, it was right with you, wasn't it?" he said, looking to Ruby.

The girl smiled. "Yeah. Thanks Jaune."

Why was she smiling? He didn't think he'd said anything particularly worth smiling over. Maybe she enjoyed the coincidence?

The strike of a match was heard, and Ruby turned her head to the source.

It was the secret Faunus. She had lit some candles, and sat in the corner of the room with a book in her hand.

"That girl…"

"You know her?" Yang asked.

"Not really. She saw what happened this morning but left before I could say anything."

"Welp, now's your chance!" Yang declared, grabbing Ruby's wrist and pulling her towards the woman.

"But- wait, what are you doing?!"

Jaune quickly climbed to his feet, and followed the eager Yang and protesting Ruby on their way towards the Faunus girl.

"Hello-o!" Yang sang, "I believe you two may know each other?"

"Aren't you that girl who exploded?" the Faunus asked after a moment of observation.

"Uh, yeah. My name's Ruby." She offered a hand, but quickly retracted it when the other girl made no move of extending her own. "But you can just call me crater… Actually, you can just call me Ruby."

"Okay," the woman replied, not lifting her eyes from her book.

"What are you doing?" Yang whispered to her sister.

"I don't know help me!" Ruby whispered back.

"So! What's your name?" Yang asked the clearly uninterested girl.

She lifted her eyes. "Blake."

"Well Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister. I like your bow!"

"Thanks," Blake said, her desire for the conversation to end apparent.

"It goes great with your… pajamas!" Yang continued.

God, is this what he looked like when he tried to talk to people?

"Right…"

"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang tried again.

"Yes. It's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book, that I will continue to read."

Neither Yang nor Ruby moved.

"As soon as you leave."

Yang turned to her sister. "Yeah, this girl is a lost cause."

Ruby instead turned back to Blake.

"What's it about?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Your book. Does it have a name?"

"Well, it's about a man with two souls," Blake said, "Each fighting for control over his body."

Wait. "Jeckyll and Hyde?"

Blake's eyes snapped to him.

"You know it?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah. Well, I know _of_ it. I haven't read it myself, but I've been told it's a good read. My mother loves books. We have them lining an entire wall back at home," he answered.

"That so?" she asked, shifting more of her attention from the book.

"I love books too," Ruby said. "Yang used to read me every night before bed. Stories of heroes, and monsters. They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress," she revealed.

"And why is that?" Blake asked, her focus now on the conversation. "Hoping to live happily ever after?"

"Well I'm hoping we all will," Ruby answered, "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books; as someone who fought for what was right, and protected people."

"That's… very ambitious for a child," Blake observed, "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

"Well," Ruby began, a smile growing, "that's why we're here! To make it better."

"Besides," Jaune interjected, "you can't get far without ambition."

"Oh!" Yang cheered, lifting Ruby up into a hug, "I'm so proud of my little sister!"

"Cut it out!" Ruby shouted, fighting back against her sister's hold.

"Uh guys," he said, trying to gain their attention, "You're being pretty loud, and people are trying to sleep…"

"He's… ergh… right," Ruby said, still trying to pull herself free.

Yang grumbled, but released the smaller girl.

Blake laughed quietly. "Well, Yang, Ruby, and um-"

"Jaune," he filled in.

"Jaune. It's been a pleasure, but I think I'm going to go to sleep now," Blake finished.

"Right," Ruby agreed, "Sorry for bothering you."

"You're fine. Goodnight."

They finished their goodbyes, and returned to their spots on the floor, where they each quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Locker 592, 593, 594.

Nearly at locker 636, where he had left Corcea Mors yesterday.

632, 633, 634.

His procedural counting was interrupted by the body of a woman standing in front of locker 635.

She was tall, maybe only an inch shorter than he. She wore light bronze armour and had long red hair. She was also in front of his locker.

"So Pyrrha," Weiss began. She stood in front of the other girl, also in front of his locker, "have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on?" she asked, "I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!"

The girl in bronze, assumedly Pyrrha, hummed in thought. "I'm not quite sure," she answered, "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well," Weiss began, "I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together."

"Well that sounds grand," Pyrrha returned.

"U-um, excuse me," he interjected, an end to their conversation not visible.

Pyrrha rotated on a heel to face him.

"Uh, you're standing in front of my locker," he told her.

She looked to the locker for a moment. "Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't realise."

"I-it's fine," he responded, "You couldn't have known. Oh, I'm Jaune, by the way," he said, sticking out his hand.

"You don't _know_ who she is?" Weiss asked.

Uh oh. Is this one of these things he was supposed to know?

"Uhh, no… Should I?"

"I'm Pyrrha," the girl answered quickly, taking his hand and shaking it lightly.

"Oh, well nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Jaune," she returned with a smile, taking a large side step away from his locker so that he could access it.

"She's _Pyrrha Nikos_!" Weiss declared.

He blinked. "Oh. I'm Jaune Arc."

He didn't realise surnames were so important for introductions.

Weiss looked at him strangely, before throwing her arms up, spinning on her heel, and walking away.

He blinked in surprise, and glanced to Pyrrha, who simply shrugged.

The intercom on the wall crackled softly. "_Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately._"

* * *

The view over the cliffs, with the wind flowing around them slowly, was rather picturesque, broken only by the old headmaster in front of them.

"For years," the headmaster began, "`you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now," the blonde woman who always seemed to accompany him continued, "I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

"What?" Ruby whimpered.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," he continued.

Ruby whined.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"After you've partnered up," the headmaster said, ignoring the interruption, "make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you _will_ die."

Well that's just excellent news for him.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Yes, he had many, but he hadn't the nerve to ask any of them.

Jaune watched, as one by one, the students from his left were flung into the sky from the small metal platform they all stood on.

His gaze flitted down to the platform beneath his own feet, fear growing continually stronger as student after student disappeared from the ground.

Yang vanished, then Ruby, and now just he remained on the ground. Then, the platform sent him into the sky.

Jaune didn't scream in terror as he careened through the air, utterly out of control. He didn't and nobody can prove otherwise.

He watched the ground fly past beneath him, and students ahead falling into, and through, the foliage of the Emerald Forest.

He tumbled through the air, the ground steadily approaching, until he was suddenly snatched in another direction, and came to a jarring halt.

He looked above him. A red and bronze spear stuck out from a tree, holding him by his hood from falling to his demise.

"Thank you!" he called weakly into the wind.

And as though his predicament was not bad enough, the sound of ripping fabric filled the air, and a moment later he fell, wailing (he didn't) once more.

He landed on his feet, but didn't stay there, falling first onto his rear, and then onto his back.

It certainly could have gone worse.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, and shook his head to clear the dizziness. Then, he slowly made his way to stand.

Only to be immediately bowled over as a small form crashed into him at high speed.

He groaned in pain from his returning position on the floor.

"Omigosh Jaune! Are you okay?!" Ruby asked, springing back to her feet and offering the boy a hand.

He groaned again, and took her hand, looking over her worried expression. "Yeah, I am," he grinned, "partner."

Ruby smiled, helping him to his feet, then she blinked, confusion set on her face.

"Why didn't you activate your Aura?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You have a cut on your cheek. Why didn't you heal it with your Aura?"

"I do?" He probed at his cheek with a finger, bringing it away to reveal a small streak of red.

"Jaune," Ruby began softly, "Do you know what Aura is?"

Of course he knew what Aura was. The 'manifestation of the Soul', they called it.

Aura was a form of energy emitted from every living creature, from the largest of animals, to the smallest of cells. Humans and Faunus had learnt to awaken this energy, either through incredible stress or by being 'kick started' by another with an active Aura, and harness it to protect themselves from harm, and strengthen their bodies and weapons.

This ability is not limited to just humans, however, as dogs, and other animals with high intelligence have been able to awaken their Aura through the extreme stress manner in rare cases, though they have been documented as having significantly less, and it being much more difficult to activate. Recent studies have proven it impossible to kick start an animal's Aura, as the process requires active and intelligent input from both parties to be effective, which is beyond the understanding of any other species. It has led researchers to believe that Aura, while not based purely on intelligence, is likely linked to a species' ability for higher brain function.

But that was the boring stuff, in Jaune's eyes, at least. What really fascinated him was the physical properties an object gained when imbued with an active Aura.

There are three main types of physical stress: compressive, tensile, and shear forces, and every material in the world had a documented maximum value for these forces that it can withstand before it begins to deform. In Aura imbued materials, these values multiply by a significant amount, the Aural Stress Threshold (AST), and experience another peculiar property, which is referred to as the Aural Stress Continuation Principle. It is known as this, as if the force does not reach the AST of the material, the object experiences zero deformation or damage.

The object experiences no fatigue, regardless of how much or how little force is applied, so long as it does not surpass the Aural Stress Threshold.

It has been discerned that objects that have an active Aura applied to them gain a form of pseudo-animation, in where the Aura actively maintains the object's form at a molecular level, strengthening it, and eliminating any form of gradual damage. For a Huntsman's weapon, one of the only objects this property applies to regularly, as the object requires frequent and regular applications of active Aura for it to retain effectivity, it means that they require no maintenance. So long as it does not experience a force that exceeds the AST, it will never wear, rust, dull, bend, crack, or break.

It was why his family's weapon, Corcea Mors, a simple chromium-steel sword, had been through over twenty years of combat during the Great War, and lasted a further 80 years, still as sharp as the day it was forged, until it arrived in his grasp when he had taken it from its mantle above the fireplace in the family mansion and run.

Different materials had differing increases in strength from active Aura presence, known as the Aural Strengthening Factor. Titanium and its alloys have shown a great affinity for Aura, and had one of the highest ASFs known to society. It meant that a tough titanium-vanadium alloy, with an ASF of 12.68, could keep up with a naturally stronger and heavier chromium or carbon steel weapon, with ASFs of 10.52 and 10.36 respectively.

Finally, he nodded at his partner's question.

"Then why don't you have it unlocked?" she asked.

"Um, well, my parents were really old fashioned," True, "They wanted me to train without Aura so I'd be less likely to rely on it too much," Less true.

"Oh! Well, I should be able to unlock it for you, if that's okay," Ruby returned.

"Uh, yeah, that'd be great. Thanks. What do I need to do?" he asked.

"Just close your eyes, and concentrate," she answered.

"Uh, okay, but on what?"

"You'll understand when I start." She smiled at him.

"Okay." Jaune nodded, and closed his eyes as instructed. He heard her step close, and felt her place a hand on the side of his face, a finger resting on his temple.

"For it is in courage that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of hope and light to rise above darkness. Infinite in compassion and unbound by hatred, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, help thee," she chanted.

His heart pulsed, a wave of energy rushing through his flesh, healing the scratch on his cheek, and strengthening his body.

Then something changed.

There was no volume, but he could not think of a word to describe it other than loud.

And by god, was it loud. The not-sounds assaulted him, pushing in on his mind and body from every direction, screaming for his attention. Some high and fast, others deep and powerful. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, of the signals demanding his focus.

It hurt it hurt it _hurt_.

He fell to his knees, gasping, with hands rushing to cover his head.

"Jaune?!" he barely heard Ruby scream, "_Jaune!?_"

He was sure she had been standing, but then she was in front of him, grabbing his wrists and shouting his name in a panic.

She let go of him, staggering away. A moment later, the loudest pulse he had experienced washed through him. He flicked his eyes to Ruby, the direction it had come from, and the little holographic screen in her hand. She was trying to get help.

He watched her finger drop to the screen, and another wave flew free from the little device.

The sounds, he _knew_ them.

Ruby's finger lifted, shifted, and dropped again. Another explosive pulse.

3

The scroll was screaming at him. 3, it said. Input received, recognised; '3', it told him.

Her finger moved again, and this time, according to the scroll, fell on 4.

Another move.

_Calling '1234'_

The emergency number. No, he didn't need it. He didn't want that attention. He didn't want to get kicked out for failing. He didn't want to get _Ruby_ kicked out.

Stop stop "_Stop_."

* * *

Ruby hadn't unlocked another's Aura before. She'd been told it was tiring, but she never realised it would be _this_ bad. It was like the strength of a dozen cookies had gotten sucked out of her, but it was worth it, because it had worked. She could see Jaune's Aura already beginning to heal the graze he'd received.

She always thought Yang had a massive amount of Aura, but she never could have expected how much Jaune had. It was ridiculous!

She also never expected him to collapse to his knees, groaning with pain.

"Jaune?!" she screamed, grabbing his arms, and quickly falling into panic when he didn't react, "_Jaune?!_"

She released him, and staggered away, battling with her exhaustion. She couldn't _breathe_. She was heaving in lungfuls of air, but it _wasn't enough_. Ruby frantically pulled her scroll from her pocket, and strung in the four digits of the emergency number.

Screw the initiation, her friend was hurting and she didn't know what to do! He needed help and that was infinitely more important than a stupid test.

She hit call, and flung it up to her ear, but there was nothing to be heard. No beeping, no tone, no buzz, no nothing.

"_Stop_."

Ruby's head whipped back around and rushed over to him. "Jaune? Are you okay?!"

No. No he was not. He did not feel fine. But he focused. He focused on her face and her hair and her worried expression.

"I-I'm fine," he lied, "It's just… loud."

"Loud? What are you talking about?" Ruby frowned in worry and disbelief.

"Your scroll," he answered, pointing at it, "I can hear it."

"Wha- Hear it?" she continued in confusion.

"Yeah," he said, coming to a realisation, "I can hear all the machines."

He could. Everything. The cacophony of Beacon's extensive devices, the hundreds of cameras lining the forest they stood in, the dozen other scrolls held by the other initiates, and so much more. Not only that, but he could also hear the broadcasting signals of the CCT itself, carrying with it petabytes of data every second to people everywhere in the city.

He knew, and though he wasn't sure how he did, that he could access all of it. It was just… _there_. It wasn't like having the internet at his fingertips when using an interface, like a computer, it was as though _he_ were a part of the stream. Like _it_ were a part of _him_.

But it was still so loud. He was trying to look at too much and his brain was suffering for it. The human brain could only process so much information, and so his was being continuously overloaded. So he just… narrowed the filter. He didn't want to hear the millions of digital requests made over the internet every second, so he didn't. It was like tuning something out. His brain was still receiving it all, it simply didn't process the information and he didn't have to worry about it.

It was an instant relief. The lack of overpowering data gave him time to observe and react again. Like, _damn_, the camera network through the forest was incredibly thorough in its observations. There seemed to be one every dozen metres, by what he could 'see'.

He looked (physically, this time) at the nearest camera. It was small, hidden within the foliage of the tree that supported it, but present none the less. He prodded at it mentally, and then he saw himself.

It was incredibly strange. Like looking into a mirror with one eye, and looking around it with the other. He could see both in front of him and behind himself simultaneously. It was in that moment that he truly recognised how impressive the human eye and brain were.

The footage was obviously HD, and yet couldn't even compare to what he saw natural. Not only that, but the digital image was also so much more taxing on his concentration. A computer couldn't 'fill in the blanks' like a human brain could, so they had to record _everything_ they saw or else leave possibly important data behind.

So he pushed it back, and like a photo in the background, he let it sit unnoticed until his focus went to it. Then he expanded, taking in the feed of the 634 cameras through the forest, and let the brain's natural ability to notice motion direct his attention.

34J showed a blond woman, Ruby's sister Yang, walking alongside the secret Faunus, backs to the camera. He switched his attention to 35J, and could now see that they were talking with each other as they slowly travelled north.

"Jaune?" Ruby asked timidly, "Are you sure you're okay? You've just kinda been standing there, staring at that tree for a few minutes…"

"I… Yes. I'm okay. More than okay, actually. I think… I think I just unlocked my superpower thing."

"Your Semblance?" She blinked. "But… But I just unlocked your Aura… I mean, I didn't unlock mine for nearly a year!" She shook her head sharply. "Seriously though! I unlocked your Aura and you just… _collapsed_, and you were groaning and then my scroll wouldn't work and I was so _scared_!" She took a deep breath. "What _happened_ Jaune?"

"My Semblance," he began, "from what I can tell, lets me, like, feel all the technology around us, and I can see what they see, and feel what they feel, and know what they know, and there was just _so much_," he answered breathlessly. "I think I've got a handle on it now."

"Are you sure? You really worried me there," Ruby said quietly.

"Yeah."

"Soooo, you think you unlocked your Semblance? It's rare to unlock it so quickly, you know. Like, really, _really_ rare."

He nodded. "I think I might be able to… control technology."

God, he sounded like such a weirdo. A 'Semblance', as Ruby had called it, was supposed to be a reflection of the Soul, or something similar, and his was about computers. He sounded like an utter no-life.

"That's so cool!"

He turned sharply in surprise towards a gushing Ruby Rose.

"You can be, like, the Computer Guy in those movies, but instead of being stuck at a desk you can just go 'Wawawawah!'." She made a face of concentration as she put two fingers over her temple. "'He went this way! Follow me!' and like, 'Haha! Your super cool evil robot sidekick is no match for me! He fights for me now! Mwahaha!' and then be all like, 'Hwaah! Hi-yah! Wa-chah!'" The odd, what seemed to be some sort of fighting sound effects, matched with her exaggerated kicks and karate chops.

Her worry transformed into childish glee even faster than she had been moving when she ran into him.

He tried to stifle his laughter. He really did, but it was just _so_ funny, and it quickly leaked from his nose, before he totally lost control, and had to struggle to remain upright. He came back up, gasping for breath, and saw Ruby's large pout.

"So what can you do?" she asked.

He got his laughter under control, and answered.

"Well, you were right about one thing," he answered with a grin, "I know where to go. Follow me."

Ruby cheered, and quickly began humming some spy movie themed music as they walked.

Coming to Beacon. He didn't think he'd ever made a better decision.

* * *

**Hello! Welcome to my newest story!**

**First of all, this was heavily inspired by ThePhantomScribe's 'Viral'. I really enjoyed that fic, and hopefully, mine will not suffer from the same solitary chapter affliction and abandoned status. Feel free to yell at me if it does.**

**Well, I normally update on Sundays, but I wanted this out as close to Christmas as I could manage. I'm not certain when another chapter for this will come out, but expect a month at the latest. If this is received well, it may be sooner.**

**Anyway, I don't have as much to say as I thought I would, so I hope you enjoyed! And u****ntil next time!**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**

**Word count: 6,807**


	2. Chapter 2

Yang and Blake had arrived at the temple, he saw. He and Ruby weren't far behind, and the other two remaining pairs were closing in as well.

The closer pair was the Weiss Schnee girl, with Pyrrha Nikos. They walked quickly towards the temple in the watch of camera 37L, Weiss leading the way proudly.

33C showed the last pair in the forest. A girl in pink, with short orange hair, and a rather androgynous man with long black hair. They had stopped in front of a cave, the girl making wide gestures towards it.

Perhaps he could find out about the two?

He took a step forward and looked at a camera. He began following the information flow, back to the local hub, through the wireless transmitter to the central hub, and back to Beacon's main server. There was… a lot of information, but fortunately, it was well organised, and so after a few moments of looking (and running some keywords through the search function), he located the data file for the twelve prospective students taking initiation in the 1000 hours timeslot.

It was a list, organised in alphabetical order, with a headshot below the name.

\- Arc, J.

Himself, with a photo he had taken for the falsified transcripts that still made him cringe. He never liked looking at photos of himself.

\- Belladonna, B.

Blake, the secret Faunus he'd met yesterday. Yang's partner.

\- Bronzewing, D.

A square chinned human male. Light brown hair, combed left with squinted eyes.

\- Lark, S.

Another human man. Dark blue hair smoothed back over his head, and lighter blue eyes.

\- Nikos, P.

Pyrrha Nikos, whom he'd met earlier. She seemed nice.

\- Ren, L.

The androgynous boy he'd seen on the camera earlier. He'd check the profile in a moment.

\- Rose, R.

Ruby, his friend and partner, looking as though she were suppressing a great deal of excitement as the picture was taken.

\- Schnee, W.

The bossy girl who had been bothering Ruby yesterday. He didn't like her very much.

\- Thrush, R.

Slender human male. Green mohawk and blue eyes.

\- Valkyrie, N.

The girl with orange hair he had seen on the camera feed, partnered with Ren, L.

\- Winchester, C.

Human male, the last on this list that he hadn't met. Square face, with burnt orange, combed back hair.

\- Xiao Long, Y.

Yang, Ruby's sister, the final entry on the list.

But back to the pair in the forest. He opened the file for Lie, R.

_Name: Lie Ren - alias "Ren"_

_Status: Active_

_Sex: Male_

_Age: 17_

_DOB: Undisclosed_

_Height: 175cm_

_Semblance: Undisclosed_

_Weapon(s): "StormFlower" – Dual wielded machine pistols with dagger-like bladed underside._

_Appearance: Tall and thin. Pale complexion. Long black hair, pink stripe. Pink irises._

_Previous residence: Kuroyuri (Lost to Purge)_

_Known affiliates: Nora Valkyrie (see __student file__), An Ren (deceased), Li Ren (deceased)_

_Notes:_

_Orphaned during Purge of Kuroyuri at age six. Quiet, rarely not found in the company of affiliate Valkyrie. Strong bond with Valkyrie, N. after escape from Kuroyuri and subsequent travels._

_Semblance remains unknown, but is believed to be tied to emotion._

_Despite semblance not confirmed to be in use, Ren, L. shows remarkable combative capability, due in part to exemplary control of his Aura, and has been witnessed manipulating it to create physical objects (see __Ren-L_combatlog_1__)._

_Agility based fighter. Relies on high mobility to dodge attacks and deal high damage to enemies. Likely weak to attrition based fighters._

Jaune opened the hyperlink, and a video feed, taken by camera 13B at 1006 hours, 12 minutes previous, began to play in his mind. It was short, a little over two minutes long, and showed Ren fighting with a massive snake Grimm, as well as his ability to create a small shield of his Aura.

He was clearly an extremely talented fighter. If he was anywhere near the average, Jaune would have a lot of catching up to do.

Jaune took his next step as he opened the girls file.

_Name: Nora Valkyrie_

_Status: Active_

_Sex: Female_

_Age: 17_

_DOB: Undisclosed_

_Height: 155cm_

_Semblance: Undisclosed_

_Weapon(s): "Magnhild" – Warhammer with mechashift to rotary grenade launcher._

_Appearance: Short, with a pale complexion. Short orange hair. Turquoise irises._

_Previous residence: Kuroyuri (Lost to Purge)_

_Known affiliates: Lie Ren (see __student file__)_

_Notes:_

_Orphaned at an unknown age, pre-Purge of Kuroyuri. Rarely seen not in the company of affiliate Ren. Strong bond with Ren, L. after escape from Kuroyuri and subsequent travels._

_Semblance unknown, but Valkyrie, N. has shown little physical reaction when exposed to electrical current. Possibly electrical channelling or simply high pain tolerance._

_Despite semblance not confirmed to be in use, Valkyrie, N. shows remarkable combative capability, with substantial strength and a high mastery of her chosen weapon._

_Strength based fighter. Relies on dispatching enemies quickly with powerful attacks before damage can be dealt to her. Likely weak to speed based fighters._

They were both very talented it seemed.

Jaune pulled his focus out of the information, and back into the world, taking another step. He watched on the camera feed as Nora charged into the cave, and Ren scrambled to follow.

Sudden movement on camera 36F caught his attention. It was a pack of Grimm, half a dozen that he could see, moving towards him and Ruby. It was the large, wolf-like Grimm species, one of the few he remembered the name of.

"Beowolves," he warned, "Six heading our way, from over there." He pointed to 19 degrees past north, where they were steadily approaching from, dashing past a number of the cameras he watched as they ran. "Ten seconds out."

Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose from her back. "I've got this," she said firmly, before grinning slightly, "Let me show you what I can do."

Despite her reassurance, he drew Crocea Mors, his family sword, and expanded the sheath into its shield form, ready for the off chance that he may be able to help her combat the monstrous creatures.

The Beowolves broke through the underbrush into visibility, and Ruby vanished in a flurry of rose petals, reappearing in the air beside one of the wolves, weapon and body moving in harmony in a giant downward slash. Crescent Rose fired with a loud crack after the completed strike, stunning another Beowolf with its projectile and propelling Ruby away as her first target split down the middle. She spun in the air, bringing her weapon around for a devastating horizontal sweep, taking the legs clean off another Beowolf, and landed in a stable three-point pose, weapon up and ready for another attack.

Ruby decimated the remaining Grimm with a similar brutal efficiency, then paused to survey.

"That's all of them," Jaune informed, as Ruby continued to scan their surroundings.

Ruby let out a sharp breath as she released the combative pose and returned to a more relaxed position.

"That was so cool!" he exclaimed, now that the danger had passed.

Ruby grinned bashfully and scratched at her cheek. "It wasn't _that_ cool." She was totally wrong. "It was just some Beowolves."

"It was so _that cool_! You were so fast! I couldn't even keep my eyes on you! I had to use the cameras to watch properly!"

"You really think so?" she asked shyly.

"Totally!" he affirmed. "You're so skilled! And how did you go so fast?"

"Oh that's easy! It's my Semblance," she explained. "It lets me go-" She suddenly appeared in front of him, less than a foot from his face, "really fast!" she declared with a wide smile.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, mind racing, "That has so many useful combative applications," his voice trailed off slightly, "It's way better than mine…"

How could he even hope to compete with someone as awesome as Ruby? How was he supposed to help her if he could barely swing his sword, while she could do things like that?

"Hey," Ruby said quietly, lightly bumping her shoulder against his side, "It's okay. It's not better or worse, just," she paused to find the right word, "different. Like, my Semblance is really simple, y'know? It just makes me go fast, but who knows what kind of things you could do with yours. As my dad once told me, 'No Semblance is bad, it's just about finding out how to apply it'," she quoted, smiling at him. "I know you'll be able to do really cool stuff with your Semblance."

He smiled back, her confidence in him boosting his own and improving his mood.

"Thanks Ruby," he said seriously. "C'mon, let's get to the temple."

"Yeah!" she cheered, "Lead the way Mr. I-can-see-the-whole-forest-at-once!"

He couldn't help but grin at her seemingly endless enthusiasm.

"It's just up ahead. Your sister and Blake are already there."

True to his claim, not a minute later, they stepped out into a clearing, with the ruins of a circular structure placed proudly in the middle.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, rushing over to her sister, who stood with her partner, just outside the temple.

"Ruby!" Yang called in return, embracing her sister tightly.

Jaune stepped past them and onto the crumbled stone of the temple floor.

Arranged in a three-quarter arc were twenty four stone pillars, and on top of a little over half of those pillars sat the relics.

Chess pieces.

One stood out to him, not because of how it looked, but the nature of the piece itself. The black knight.

Jaune was not an active player of chess by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew the rules. The knight piece had always drawn him in with its unique movement and capability for complex strategy.

He stepped over, and plucked the piece from its pillar. He would have preferred a white - well, gold in this instance, by the looks of some of the other pieces - knight, but it seems that those had already been taken.

"Jaune!" Yang declared, startling him as she threw an arm around her shoulder.

"H-hey Yang," he stuttered in return.

"So you're partnered with my baby sister, huh?" she confirmed, before she leaned in close, pulling his head in with her and whispered to him. "Look after her for me, would ya? I won't always be around for her, so can I rely on you to watch her back?"

Jaune smiled. "Of course. I'll make sure she stays safe."

Yang smiled back. "Thanks Jaune. Ruby's a nice girl, but she's a bit… naïve." Yang's smile turned vicious, and her grip on him tightened to a level of discomfort, "And if I hear that you've taken advantage of her, you won't survive the day!" The viciousness dissipated, "But I know you won't do that, you're a good guy. You won't, will you?"

It wasn't a question.

He shook his head rapidly.

The hold on his neck disappeared as Yang released him and stepped away. "Good! Then we won't have any problems!"

"Aha! Here it is!" declared a proud voice.

Weiss and Pyrrha had reached the temple. Weiss stepped into the temple and collected a relic, a black rook piece, and stepped back to join her partner.

Then the ground shook.

Well, it rumbled a bit. Enough to be noticeable, but not much else.

Jaune quickly skimmed through the camera feeds, and found the cause of the tremor. The cave Nora and Ren had ventured into had just exploded, a gigantic scorpion Grimm punching through the rock entrance that was much too small for its massive profile.

Its tail came free from the darkness, revealing Nora, the girl, clinging to a golden stinger. A moment later, it whipped its tail forward, flinging Nora into the air and towards the temple at an incredible speed.

"Incoming!" Jaune shouted, pointing to where Nora should be coming from.

Jaune heard a quiet, but quickly becoming louder, scream. A scream not of terror, but of elation.

"Waooooooooooo!" Nora cried, her voice warbling from the high speed wind, as she flew over their heads, landing nimbly in a roll within the ruined temple. She rolled twice, before popping to her feet, legs together and arms wide, like a gymnast, with a bright 'Ta-da~'.

"Did that girl just fall out of the sky?" Yang asked, incredulous, as Nora selected one of the remaining relics from a pedestal.

"Yeah," Jaune affirmed, "and the thing that threw her is-"

He was cut off by a deafening screech coming from the forest. He looked back into the camera network, only to see three feeds, 15B, 15C, and 16B, crumble into static as they were destroyed. He looked at the nearest surviving cameras, but all he saw was colossal bursts of wind.

He turned his head in the direction of the destruction.

"Uh oh," he said as he watched the gigantic raven-like Grimm take to the air.

"Uh oh," he said again, as he turned back to the forest to see Ren charge free from the tree line.

"Huh?" came Ruby's confused voice. He pointed to the avian Grimm, which was now beelining towards their position.

"Uh oh," she echoed.

"_Oh no,_" he whined nasally, as the massive scorpion Grimm broke free from the forest in its pursuit of Ren, letting free a loud roar as it spotted their group.

Jaune traveled back through the network up to Beacon's servers once more. This time he went into the first years' lessons, opened the Grimm Studies class folder, and skimmed through the first information packet, searching for information about the two giant Grimm.

The scorpion was called a Deathstalker. Powerful pincers and a venomous sting. Fast moving, but only forward, while slow to turn. Heavily armoured everywhere, with exception of joints and the underbelly. Agile fighters paired with heavy hitters would stand the best chance against this thing.

The raven meanwhile, was known as a Nevermore. Much lighter armour, but faster, and capable of flight. Razor sharp beak and claws capable of shredding most armour, and enough crushing force to break anything that survives when in close quarters. However, the Nevermore generally relies on its speed and flight, flinging blade-like feathers from a distance to trap or incapacitate enemies, before going in for the kill. Ranged and speed based fighters would have the greatest effectivity.

Ren reached the group of initiates, gasping for breath.

"Nora," he managed, "Please. Don't ever do that again."

"Deathstalker!" Yang shouted, as though everyone wasn't already aware.

"And there's a Nevermore heading our way too!" Jaune added, just as Ruby shouted,  
"I've got it!" She dashed towards the Deathstalker, Crescent Rose unfurling as she moved.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang cried after her.

Ruby fired Crescent Rose behind her, propelling herself towards the Deathstalker for a powerful strike, only to be batted away by one of the Deathstalker's pincers. She got back to her feet quickly, spinning to face the Grimm again.

"D-don't worry!" she reassured shakily, "Totally fine."

The Nevermore screeched, drawing Jaune's eyes to it. It was in range, he realised, and it began swinging its wing forward to send a barrage of feathers at them.

Jaune was running. He didn't remember starting, nor could he figure out why he was running _towards_ the giant Grimm, rather than away. Then his mind caught up with his subconscious. It was the feathers. The feathers that he knew were as sharp and tough as any sword, the feathers he knew the Nevermore had flung to the ground, the feathers he knew would pin Ruby in place by her cape when they landed.

So Jaune kept running. He had to help her, had to protect her. He had to _save her_.

He sidestepped left, narrowly dodging a striking feather that, even now half buried within the earth, was close to his height in length. His mind was buzzing, everything running in overdrive as he sprinted. He swung his right foot backwards and initiated a clockwise spin on his left foot, maneuvering him out of the way of another feather while maintaining most of his forward momentum.

He kept running, dodging a dozen feathers with an instinctive knowledge of where they would land and his _need_ to save his partner. However, his fastest was not enough, and the cascading feathers rapidly outpaced him on their way for Ruby.

He watched it. He watched it fall as if time were slowed. He watched it fall, the solitary feather, narrowly missing Ruby, but cutting into her cape, before continuing into the ground. She yelped as her momentum was suddenly halted by her cape's grip on her neck. The Deathstalker screeched in triumph as it closed in on Ruby, who tugged desperately on her cape.

Jaune ran, faster than he ever had before, weaving between feathers, as the Deathstalker lifted its tail, its golden stinger shining in the sun. He leapt forward as the stinger began to fall, thanking every deity that may or may not exist for his long limbs, which allowed him to make a desperate swipe at the feather pinning Ruby, as he leaned in the opposite direction to push against the small girl.

Thankfully, the blade struck true, cutting easily through the shaft of the feather just above Ruby's cape. The cape slipped free from the sheared edge, and Ruby and he tumbled to the floor, just as the Deathstalker's stinger struck the floor where Ruby had just been pinned. It screeched again, near deafening from this distance, and lifted its tail up, readying for another strike.

He forced himself to his feet, exhausted from his mad dash. His left arm came up as the stinger came down, Crocea Mors' sheath popping open to form a shield. Jaune grit his teeth as he desperately tried to brace himself, not for the force of the blow, but for the pain that would follow when his strength inevitably failed.

The Deathstalker struck his shield with force he could never hope to match. His shield arm slammed into his chest, then slammed him into the ground, forcing the air from his lungs while his aura flared, doing all it could to stop his body from failing right there. He wanted to cry out, to gasp, to scream, to _breathe_, but he couldn't. His diaphragm was convulsing, shocked into a loop of failing spasms. It squirmed in his chest, doing nothing to give his body the oxygen it cried for.

The stinger rose again. His body hurt all over; he just wanted to stop, to sleep and never wake up, but he couldn't, because he still had something to do, someone to protect.

Ruby wasn't safe yet.

He lifted his shield again with an arm that felt ready to fall off, dully noting the large dent in the polished metal. He wasn't ready for the pain before, and he certainly wasn't ready now, but he had no choice. He couldn't let Ruby be hurt. He _wouldn't_ let Ruby be hurt.

The golden stinger and imposing silhouette vanished in a blur of crimson, and though he could draw no breath, the scent of roses wafted at his nose. The red vanished, replaced with blurred shapes and colours. A pale half oval, a mess of black and rose, two shining silver circles, a bright white halo, an endless expanse of soft blue.

It was beautiful beyond belief, but it was _wrong_. He was trapped. Trapped beneath an ocean of black, with jagged and fractured islands of white, and a deadly golden curve. He had to- had to protect- It was coming for them- The golden curve was coming, and with it would come pain and harm and _death_-

He was pulled back, back to the shining silver, as something warm and wet landed on his cheek. He blinked slowly, the simple action taking far more effort than it should have, and slowly, the blurry shapes and colours started gaining clarity. The swirl of shapes slowly reformed into the shape of Ruby's face.

Dark crimson locks pointed towards him, and silver eyes were clouded with tears. He was on the ground, he realised, looking up at his crying partner.

"Jaune," she cried, "You _can't_-" she sobbed, "You can't die. _Please _Jaune."

He swallowed slowly. It hurt.

"Ruby?" he croaked.

Her eyes went wide as she gasped. "Jaune!" she cried, "You're okay!"

He opened his mouth to reply, only for his chest to be racked with painful coughs.

"'Okay' is a stretch," he moaned, "You happen to get the number plate of the fucking train that hit me?"

Ruby gave a short laugh, full of both relief and concern.

His skin was buzzing, prickling around his chest and arm in a way not entirely uncomfortable. He cast his eyes downwards, and found his skin to be glowing; a soft white light emanating outwards.

His Aura.

The pain he felt was slowly beginning to subside as his Aura worked to repair the damage that had been done to his body.

Ruby gaped at him, before she let out a breathy laugh. "I always thought Yang had like, a butt-load of Aura, but you've gotta have at least three butt-loads," she giggled.

"I feel _soooo _lucky," he drawled.

"You should," she replied seriously, voice quiet, "If you didn't, you'd be dead."

"Well I'll count my lucky stars later," he groaned, pushing himself up to a sitting position and casting a still blurry gaze around the clearing.

The others were keeping the Deathstalker busy. Those with firearms were taking shots at it, while others used their weapons or dust against the creature, doing naught to damage it, but keeping its attention away from Ruby and he.

"We've still gotta get out of this, after all."

Ruby nodded resolutely, and offered him a hand. He took it graciously, letting her help him to his feet.

He looked back at the Deathstalker, shrugging off every blow sent its way, and the Nevermore, circling high above them, occasionally firing off a few feathers at the scattered forces below.

"We don't have to fight them," he realised, glancing down at the black knight attached to his belt, "We've got what we came for."

Ruby's eyes widened. "You're right," she said quietly, before she took off towards the scorpion Grimm. "Guys!" she called, drawing the attention of the six other teens, "Jaune's okay! And we've got the Relics; we don't need to fight them, we should just get back to the cliff!"

"She's right!" Yang agreed, "Let's get out of here!"

They all peeled off from the Deathstalker, and Ruby reappeared at his side in a burst of rose petals. She lifted his left arm from his side, and placed it atop her small shoulders, doing her best to pull him into a run.

He followed dutifully, starting a run and following her lead as best he could. It was slower than he'd like, his ribs still jarring painfully with each step, and regardless of how determined Ruby was, her height made it extremely difficult for her to take any of his weight.

That changed when his other arm was looped over Yang's shoulders. She grinned at him, and pushed her shoulders up, lifting a great deal of weight from him, and allowing him to move both significantly faster, and with a great deal less pain.

"Thanks," he breathed, doing his best to keep the shake he felt in his body out of his voice.

"Don't mention it!" she returned, "Let's just keep running for now, yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

* * *

They ran as fast as they could, the Deathstalker following them closely on foot while the Nevermore watched from the sky.

They ran and ran, until they reached the cliff, and more importantly, the ravine in front of it, spanned by a stone bridge, supported by large pillars of a similar stone, that connected where they stood to the ruined remains of what once may have been a castle.

The eight of them ran onto the bridge while the Deathstalker paused at the edge. It was too large to cross as they were. Jaune breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately cursed himself for thinking that life would ever give him an easy way out, for the Nevermore was diving, aiming for the bridge's supports.

The Nevermore carved straight through the stone pillars beneath them, sending the bridge upward violently, and catapulting the teens into the air. Jaune sailed through the sky for the second time that day, though this time with slightly more tact, towards the still supported end of the bridge headfirst.

He thrust his arms forward, and rolled with the impact, mitigating a lot of the force, and reducing the pain of his landing. He got back to his feet, and noted that only three others, Blake, Yang, and Ruby, had landed by him.

The other four had been sent _backwards_, onto the maybe dozen metre length of bridge that remained connected to the mainland, and they were now stuck battling the Deathstalker. Nora, with her grenade launcher, and Pyrrha, with a red and gold rifle (that was awfully similar looking to the spear that had caught him from his fall), took shots at it, while Ren and Weiss darted around it, attacking its flanks.

As much as it pained him, they couldn't reach them to help. He'd just have to hope they made it out safe.

"It's still circling us!" Ruby called, "How are we gonna take it down?"

Jaune watched the Nevermore for a moment, then looked at some of the remaining stone pillars, then back to Ruby. His mind was humming, buzzing in his skull as it worked on an idea.

"I might have an idea," he offered.

"You have a plan?" Ruby asked.

He sucked a breath in through his teeth. "Plan is a… _strong_ word."

"Just tell us what you need, Jaune," she said, her smile bright with faith.

He nodded slowly. "Blake, would you toss me your weapon for a moment?"

She tossed it to him without question, something he was grateful for. He took the blade from the sheath, and watched the ribbon flutter free. "The problem is that it's skin is too thick for our bullets to do any real damage," he explained, tucking the blade under his arm so he could tug at the ribbon. Elastic, incredibly strong, and roughly twenty metres of it coiled up within the hilt. He could work with this. "So we need to get up close and personal if we want to hurt it. And I think I know how. Ruby, how fast can you run?"

"I can do fifty metres per second if I push it," she answered, "but I can't do that for long."

Fifty metres per second. That's enough. That can work. "That's fine. We only need it for a second."

"Okay, okay. Blake," he addressed, tossing her weapon back, "Tie the end of the ribbon around that pillar, fifteen centimeters from the top, and draw it taut, but not stretched, then tie the other side around that pillar, eighteen centimeters from the top. Make sure it doesn't move."

"Got it," she answered, immediately jogging to the pillar.

He looked to the pillars, took a forty-six centimeter step backwards, then one that took him twelve centimeters left, and drew a line in the dust with the tip of his sword.

"Ruby." She blinked as he grabbed her shoulders and guided her behind the line. "Get ready to run," he instructed. She nodded, and slid a foot back, lowering her stance.

"Yang, do this," he instructed, lifting his arms to point forward, fists clenched, as he took measured one meter steps backwards from the line he just drew. She mimicked him, lifting her arms like he had and forming fists. "How much can you curl?" he asked as he reached his destination.

"One-sixty?" she replied, her shoulders lifting in a small shrug.

He blinked.

160 kilograms? Wow. Yeah, that works.

"Alright," he said, drawing another line in the dust. Fifteen meters away, Ruby stood, ready to run. "When I say 'Go', extend all your fingers as quickly as you can, alright?" She nodded. "Go!"

182 milliseconds.

"Ruby!" he called, "I need you to run to me, as quick as you can! Ready?"

"Ready!" she called in return.

"Go!"

She practically vanished, appearing just beyond him a moment after he'd finished speaking.

653 milliseconds. Roughly 95 millisecond auditory reaction time.

"Okay. Okay, this works. It'll work," he muttered, nodding to himself.

He'd make sure it worked.

* * *

'_Crack!'_ came the sharp report of Crescent Rose, echoing softly off the cliffs behind them.

The Nevermore screeched in irritation, and turned towards them.

"Here it comes!" Ruby called, as the stupid bird turned its flight towards them.

"Alright, it's go-time!" he shouted, "You guys know what you're doing?"

They gave a chorus of affirmations, and he nodded, resolute.

"Then let's do this!"

Ruby settled into a starting pose, ready to run as fast as she could as soon as he told her to.

Blake remained at the top of the left pillar, ensuring the ribbon remained in place.

He and Yang stood under the ribbon. They jumped together, caught the ribbon, and pulled it down, then they started pulling it back towards Ruby. He pulled as hard as he could, his muscles shaking lightly with the strain, but it would work, he knew it would.

They finally got the ribbon into place, when Yang turned to him.

"Are you sure about this Jaune?" she asked, and it was fair she was sceptical, given the nature of his plan.

"Trust me," he said, never taking his eyes from the rapidly approaching Nevermore, "I have done the math."

His brain was still frantic, running through dozens and dozens of calculations, until it finally settled on one, simple, decreasing value.

3.

2.

1.

"Go!" he shouted, and Ruby took off.

"Now!" he shouted a moment later, letting his fingers loose from the ribbon as Yang did the same.

He watched as it slipped from his fingers. He watched as Ruby stepped onto it as it began heading skyward. He watched as Ruby was catapulted forward and up, even faster than before.

Crescent Rose unfurled from Ruby's back, and slid around the neck of the surprised Nevermore. Her momentum carried her up, dragging the Grimm behind her to the cliff. She kicked off the sheer rock wall, and with another flash of her Semblance, dragged them both up to the top.

The Nevermore, its wings still spread for flight, was caught on the topmost ridge of the cliff-face, but Ruby continued upward, and she heaved. Crescent Rose fired again, and with a mighty pull, carved through the Grimm's neck, sending its now severed head skyward.

As the massive headless body fell, Ruby stepped to the edge of the cliff, Crescent Rose up in triumph and cape billowing.

It was incredible.

Jaune turned, to find that both Blake and Yang were watching Ruby, eyes wide. He turned, and found that Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and Weiss had managed to defeat the Deathstalker, and were looking at Ruby with a similar level of awe to Blake and Yang.

He smiled. That was his partner, and he couldn't be happier.

* * *

**Hey. Welcome back to Jaune in the Machine!**

**Sorry I took so damn long. I've really been struggling with motivation to write other the last few months, and with that, schooling beginning again, increase in work hours, and now COVID-19, it's left me with very little time where I've been able to write. **

**But now it's done! Honestly, to me it kinda feels like not a lot happened this chapter, though there are a couple reasons for that I think. First is, I'm going to be reducing chapter size to try increase the rate at which chapters come out, so from now on, expect 3-4k words a chapter. Second is, I actually wrote a couple segments that I've had to cut from this chapter, because there's still so much to write to connect them to what's already done, and I just wanted to get a chapter done and out.**

**Also, bug thanks for all the support this story got! 250 follows in just a chapter is crazy!**

**But stay tuned for next chapter! I've already got 2.5k words written for it, and they're gonna be where the story really starts becoming its own. I won't take another 4 months, I swear!**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Weiss Schnee. Pyrrha Nikos. Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. For the next four years, you will work together as Team SPRN - Spring," the Headmaster declared, "Led by Weiss Schnee."

The audience, composed of the other successful students and a number of faculty cheered as the newly appointed Team SPRN smiled.

"And finally," Ozpin continued, "Ruby Rose. Jaune Arc. Yang Xiao Long. Blake Belladonna."

Jaune, with his teammates, stepped forward.

"The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RAYB - Rainbow."

The crowd cheered for them, and Jaune looked at Ruby. She was smiling, eyes shining in the soft light, and he couldn't help but smile with her.

"Led by," he paused, "Ruby Rose!"

The girl in question's mouth fell open, surprise etched on her face. Surprised enough, in fact, that she barely reacted when Yang pulled her into a tight hold, declaring, "I'm so proud of you!"

Jaune smiled wider and joined the crowd's applause. He couldn't think of anyone more deserving of the role.

"Congratulations Partner!" he said after the clapping had subsided enough that speech was audible.

Ruby beamed. "Thanks Jaune. I'll make sure to do my best!"

"Mister Arc," Professor Ozpin greeted from beside him, startling him mildly. He hadn't heard the man approach. "Would you please accompany me to my office? There is something I wish to discuss with you."

Oh god, did he know about his transcripts? Was his dream going to be snatched away just as it came into reach?

"Don't worry, Miss Rose," the Headmaster assured his partner as she went to protest, "He's not in any kind of trouble. At least, I hope he's not."

"No sir," he answered quickly.

The man smiled. "Then there will be no issues. Please, follow me Mister Arc. We will not be gone for long."

He followed the man in silence, just a couple steps behind, through the corridors of Beacon. After a few minutes, they reached the elevator, and rode up it with some quiet, and if he was being honest, rather bad jazz music playing.

The doors to the elevator slid open smoothly, revealing the circular room Ozpin used as his office. A great collection of gears and cogs spun both above him in the air, and below the smooth glass floor beneath his feet.

The Professor walked across the room, his footsteps echoing off the curved walls.

Ozpin stepped around his desk, and sat in his large chair, gesturing to one of the two seats in front of his desk, which Jaune took.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here Mister Arc, so allow me to satiate your curiosity. I wanted to ask you some questions regarding your performance during the initiation. And don't worry, you performed well and completed the assigned tasks, earning your place here just as much as every other student within these walls. No, what I wanted to ask about was this."

Ozpin spun his holo-monitor around, revealing footage taken from camera 40C. It showed his team, along with Weiss and Pyrrha, standing at the temple. It was from shortly before Nora and Ren had arrived.

He saw himself point into the forest, and a moment later, Nora was flung onto the screen. Jaune spoke silently on the screen, the other people around drew their weapons, and a few seconds later Ren bolted out of the tree line, the massive Deathstalker hot on his tail.

"You knew they were coming," Ozpin said.

He nodded.

"A… Semblance, perhaps? Of course, if you don't want to reveal the nature of it, that is completely within your right. We would like to know what it is so we may improve your learning experience while you are a student of my institution, and assist you with possible… negative side-effects of your Semblance. Of course, the nature of your Semblance would not be shared with anyone outside of Beacon personnel without your express permission," Ozpin offered.

So he had seen what happened after his Aura was unlocked.

The offer was tempting, but the capabilities of his Semblance could bring about a great deal of danger, should the wrong people learn of it.

What was he thinking? This was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, not some shady dude on the street. The possible value of Ozpin's offer outweighed any lingering trust issues he had.

"My Semblance," he began carefully, "_seems_ to be technology manipulation."

"Seems to be?" Ozpin questioned.

"I've only had it for a few hours; I don't know its full capabilities yet. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Ozpin smiled, ignoring his query. "What capabilities _are_ you aware of?"

"Well, I can tap into a camera to see what it sees, in fact, I can do that with a whole network of cameras. I can control a device's function, to some degree; I haven't had time to test just how much I can do. I can freely access the CCT, and I can browse files at will on a computer system."

Ozpin sat quietly for a moment, absorbing what he had said.

"You say you can view what a network of cameras are recording. Is that simultaneously? How do you process all the information?"

"Yes, simultaneously. I can sort of… filter it. I can push it to the back of my mind, like you might do with background noise. It means it doesn't affect my normal perception, but it's easy to notice when something changes."

"I see," Ozpin said, before he opened one of the draws in his desk, and extracted a scroll, which he laid on the table. It was open, but the display was off. "You say you can control the functions of a device. Can you turn this on?"

Jaune probed at the device, easily switched it on, pushed around the lock screen with biometric data he pulled from the main drive and opened the notes app, where he wrote out the word 'Hello!' in large, bold font.

Ozpin looked at the device, blinked, then looked back at him.

"This scroll was locked. How did you get around it?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, I just got the biometric data from the drive and used that to unlock it," he answered.

"You used the information it was checking against to unlock it?"

"Yeah, exactly."

Ozpin took a slow breath. "I see. Thank you for the information Mister Arc. You seem to have been gifted with a very powerful Semblance, and I hope that you will continue to further your understanding of its capabilities. You are dismissed. You may return to your dorm and get to know your new team," he said with a kind smile.

"Thank you, sir," he returned. "Um, where is my dorm?"

Ozpin smiled again. "All student information is stored on our servers for the convenience of our teaching staff."

Jaune blinked. The Headmaster was telling him to break into their servers? Well, he wasn't going to turn down the offer, especially given what amounted to express permission from the Headmaster. "I see. Goodbye sir," he said, turning on his heel and walking back to the elevator.

The boy stepped into the elevator and the doors closed automatically before he was taken away from Ozpin's office.

Ozpin looked at the scroll, watching the cursor slowly blink at him as he considered the great deal of dangerous information that had just been presented to him.

He sighed deeply as the screen dimmed, then picked it up before it could shut itself off. He navigated through the device and called the man he knew would pick up.

"_Oz_," the man drawled. He sounded drunk, something not _entirely _surprising, "_Whadda you want? I'm nearly caught up with-_"

"Qrow," he interrupted, "I need you back at Beacon as soon as possible."

"_Back at Beacon?_" he questioned, "_What's goin' on over there?_"

"I'll tell you once you arrive, and we can speak more openly."

"_Huh? Oz, this is a secure-_"

"I am aware," he interrupted again.

There was a long pause. "_I see_." A long sigh. "_I can be there in three days, two, if I push it._"

"I'll see you in two days then."

The man on the other end of the line groaned. "_Right. See you then Oz,_" he said, then hung up, leaving the dial tone beeping in Ozpin's ear.

He let it fall, then carefully placed it back in the draw he'd taken it from, reaching for his coffee with his left hand, only to find nothing but air.

Right. He had forgotten that Glynda forbade him from having anymore after he had tried to sneak some past her for the team announcements. He let out another deep sigh, drumming his fingers against the desk, and pressed a button to his right.

The side door opened within a minute.

"Sir?" his assistant spoke.

"Glynda. I need you to keep a close eye on Mister Arc for the next couple of days," he instructed.

"I _told _you that boy's transcripts were too good to be true!" she declared, "I'll get on it right away sir."

He decided against correcting the motive of his observation as she turned around and stepped into the elevator again. After all, the one with the keenest eyes is the one most suspicious.

It was quite clear his transcripts were falsified, and he had originally planned to interrogate the boy on where he had acquired them, provided he survived initiation, but his displays had proven him a valuable tactician with a powerful Semblance. He would do well at Beacon.

At least, if he could stop Salem from getting to him.

* * *

The harsh, loud sound of a whistle broke through his warm and pleasant sleep.

"Gooood morning Team Rainbow!" Ruby shouted at much-too-early o'clock in the morning.

"Is there something wrong with you?" Blake asked tiredly.

"Many things," Yang affirmed with a yawn.

Ruby pouted at the accusation and blew her whistle again in retaliation.

Yang groaned at the onslaught of noise. "What time is it?" she asked blearily.

"6:43," Jaune answered with a yawn. "Too early."

"Incorrect!" Ruby claimed, "It's just enough time for our team's first mission!"

"Which is?" Yang asked.

"Decorating!" she declared, lifting a large box of clothing, books, writing utensils, and an assortment of other random trinkets.

"Huh?" Jaune asked intelligently.

Yang sighed. "We still have to unpack," she answered.

They all got out of their beds and spent the next hour unpacking all of their stuff, and one by one, ducking into the bathroom to change into their uniforms. He had offered to wait outside whilst the girls changed, but Ruby had quickly refuted that, and proposed the bathroom solution, which they had all agreed upon.

The girls' uniform consisted of a small red ribbon tie around the neck, a white dress shirt covered with a tan vest, all under a black jacket with gold trim, along with a red plaid skirt and stockings and shoes of choice.

His own attire was similar, though he sported black pants instead of a skirt, a necktie instead of ribbon, and his vest was a dark blue instead of tan.

"There seems to be a problem with this scenario," Blake said with a hint of amusement, as she emerged from the bathroom, now fully dressed and prepared for both the day, and the team's diemma.

In their haste, the beds had all been moved into a pile in the middle of the room so they would have room for their belongings to go in. There was now a distinct lack of space for the beds to return to their original positions.

"It would be pretty cramped," Jaune agreed.

Yang tilted her head. "We could ditch some of our stuff," she suggested.

"Or we could ditch our beds," Ruby mused quietly, her face lighting up as she gasped, "and replace them with bunk-beds!"

"That seems… dangerous," Blake hedged.

"And super awesome!" Yang countered with a grin.

"It would be really efficient," he agreed tentatively.

"I suppose it would," Blake agreed cautiously.

"New mission Team Rainbow! Let's do it!" Ruby called.

Another hour passed when they stepped back to admire their handiwork.

He would admit, it _looked _precarious, but he was confident in its stability.

On the left, his bed lay at the bottom, while above, Ruby's bed sat suspended by a multitude of ropes, attached to steel hooks in the ceiling, and above that hovered a white blanket, draped over the bed, not unlike a tent.

On the right was Blake's bed, with numerous books stacked on each bedpost, upon which Yang's bed stood. They hadn't had enough rope to suspend Yang's bed, so the books provided the majority of the support, while the ropes added stability.

He had had to dart across to the other side of the room numerous times to correct what could have been fatal errors in the build's stability and strength, but it was now complete, and the floor space had been drastically increased.

"Objective complete!" Ruby cheered, before she jumped up and snagged a notebook and pencil from behind her pillow. "Now, the next order of business is," she grimaced, "classes. We have a few classes together today. At nine, we've got to be-"

Wait. "At nine?" he interrupted.

"Uhh…"

"Five minutes from now?"

Ruby blinked. "We're gonna be _LATE_!" she cried, bolting past them and yanking the door open. "Go go go!" she cried, waving her arm at the open passage desperately.

* * *

Team RAYB slipped into their seats at the front of the class moments before the professor walked into the room.

The man was clearly past his prime but maintained a full head of grey hair and an equally full (and also grey) mustache. The man was shorter than Jaune was, but not significantly shorter than average, though what he lacked in height was made up significantly by width.

"Monsters!" the man shouted, slapping his hands down on the lectern at the head of the class, shaking the small atlas beside him and causing it to slip. With an impressive display of dexterity, he caught the globe and righted it, and continued his introduction without pause.

"Demons! _Prowlers_ of the night!"

Behind him was a series of boards, each depicting a detailed anatomical sketch of various species of Grimm, along with densely packed scrawled notes. In order, there was a King Taiju, then a Deathstalker, followed by a Beowolf, a Boarbatusk, and finally, a Nevermore.

"Yes," the man smirked, "the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as _prey_. Ha ha!"

His meager attempt at humour was met with utter silence, but he moved on quickly, clearing his throat before he began once more.

"And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! You may call me Professor Port, and I shall be your Grimm Studies professor during your stay at Beacon. Now, as I was saying, Vale, along with the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely _teeming_ with creatures that would love nothing more than to rip you to pieces." He sucked in a breath.

"That's where we come in," he said resolutely, casting a hard gaze over the audience. "As Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is our _sworn_ _duty_ to protect those who cannot protect themselves._ That_," he paused, "is what _you _are training to become."

The serious atmosphere dissipated, replaced with one much more jovial, like when he had first arrived. "But first, a story. A tale of a young man: me! When I was a boy…"

The lesson quickly devolved into what at first seemed to be an entirely absurd and severely exaggerated narrative of the Professor's early life, which to be fair, it was, but it was also filled with dozens of little tidbits of information about the Grimm he'd faced that Jaune scribbled hastily into a notebook.

_Beowolves  
__\- strong hearing + smell, bad eyesight  
\- BIG blindspot from back__  
__\- fast but weak - no armour_

If not for the actually useful information, dying of boredom might have actually been a concern.

"-not wanting to draw the entire pack's wrath, I caught the attention of a younger wolf and used its pride to draw it away. In the end, it was no match for my sheer _tenacity_, and my dastardly trap and I returned to the village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!"

Mercifully Port's 'lecture' had seemingly come to an end, and with it a few more useful notes.

_\- pack behaviour  
\- Alpha directs pack  
\- young = eager to impress  
\- easy to lure_

He glanced at his textbook, and while thick and detailed, did not contain nearly the quality of information that Port's narrative did. Jaune knew that he was smarter than most, but he had no doubt that he'd still struggle to remember so many details.

His teammates also seemed to struggle maintaining . Blake seemed to at least be trying, but Yang had dozed off, and Ruby was doodling on a piece of scrap paper. Not that he blamed them, Port was_ very _boring, but he worried that they wouldn't have information that could save their lives in the future.

There had to be an easier way that wouldn't rely on feeble human memory. Maybe a digital encyclopedia? No, who would take the time to find the correct Grimm, read through the information, and develop a strategy, all while being attacked? And what if it was a civilian that didn't know the names of the species?

Image recognition. That could work. Take a photo, and it takes you to the correct entry. Maybe with different information filters based on previous knowledge? It was something to consider. But it wouldn't get anywhere without the image recognition software, and if he wanted that to be accurate, it'd need a lot of practice.

Well, why not use Atlas' secret little project? HighThought, the most powerful AI on Remnant.

Jaune took a breath, and moved his focus from the lesson to the flittering signals surrounding him. He could feel the CCT all around him, all-encompassing and buzzing with endless information.

He pushed into the CCT entirely, moving through it effortlessly, unrestrained by normal physical barriers. It was utterly freeing, but dangerous. He could tell that it would be all too easy to get lost here, within the boundless knowledge, and never be able to return to his flesh and blood human body. Jaune made sure to keep his goal at the forefront of his mind: infiltrating the HighThought servers and using it to create the best damn image recognition software the world had ever seen.

Making it to Atlas servers was as easy as taking a step, though now he was presented with a large hurdle. HighThought was kept on a closed intranet and had no access to the outside web, and so the outside web had no access to HighThought.

This would be an impassable barrier for most, as in order to gain use of HighThought, this meant they'd have to do so physically, and with Atlas' paranoia, countless guards, and heavily armoured robotic security, it would essentially be suicide.

However, as Jaune was already aware, he wasn't bound to most hardware restrictions. If he could directly access a camera's feed without any form of input device, or completely circumnavigate a locking mechanism on an encrypted drive, he didn't believe that this lack of direct access would actually prevent him from doing anything.

He soon found his presumption to be correct.

Atlas had been incredibly careful to prevent anyone from accessing their super-powerful AI. No external CCT connections, no outside technology, specially engineered Scrolls handed to each member of personnel whenever they entered the secure facility that were incapable of accessing the CCT; Atlas had thought this through. However, even though the special Scrolls couldn't connect to the web, they hadn't _physically _prevented them from brushing against the CCT, and that was all Jaune needed.

Once he had gotten into the little device, he forced open the software failsafes and established a proper connection back to himself through the CCT, he was able to bounce to a nearby computer station through the intranet, then jump between stations until he found one with administrator credentials.

From there, he accessed HighThought.

It was strangely empty, a silent void in the otherwise frantic system. Until, that is, he issued a command. Then, from the empty expanse, swelled the densest and most potent collection of data he had ever witnessed.

While sure, there were some massive databases owned and run by mega-corporations in the tech industry, they couldn't even begin to compare to HighThought, as while they may have a greater quantity of information total, HighThought ran every single piece of information it possessed simultaneously.

Then, he merged himself with HighThought, and he surpassed everything. He was, right now, _without limit_.

But now wasn't the time to be distracted. His task still awaited him, and he wouldn't have long to finish it and escape without being detected. He, with HighThought, working in instantaneous harmony, created the framework for the recognition software, then he began finding pictures of Grimm, cataloging them as he went, deferring to his digital textbook on the different species.

Now, with ready access to what he needed, he began testing.

Hundreds of photos.

Thousands.

Millions.

A billion.

He had completed one billion, sixty-five million, four-hundred twenty-seven thousand, three-hundred twelve, (and was halfway through the next) when he became aware that a technician was about to engage with HighThought.

Jaune quickly routed the now (in great excess of) ninety-nine percent accurate software through his hijacked scroll to an empty server he had found, erased everything pertaining to him from HighThought's RAM and physical memory, wiped the usage logs from the time of his entry until now, restored the CCT blocking software within the Scroll, and removed all signs of his tampering.

And then, he left, and Atlas was none the wiser.

As he looked over his handiwork, carefully analysing the code, he experienced a strange phenomenon. All of a sudden, it vanished. All of a sudden, he was no longer within the CCT, but back within his body, a finger jabbing into his arm.

He blinked. It felt slow.

"You okay?" Ruby whispered from his side, "You look like you're spacing out… Are you using your Semblance again?"

She was perceptive.

"You're really clever, huh? Yeah, I was just playing around with it. Not like I'm missing much, right?" he whispered back.

She averted her eyes, giggling quietly, cheeks tinting. Her eyes returned to his, and she grinned.

"We can make it through this torture! I believe in us!"

He couldn't help but smile with her.

* * *

It was another busy day today. There seemed to be more paperwork on his desk with each passing week.

The intercom to his left sounded.

He paused in his work and reached across to activate the small device.

"Yes Violet?" he asked his receptionist.

"Doctor Polendina and one of his Techs are here to see you sir. He says it is extremely urgent," the woman responded curtly.

He took a breath and pushed the tiredness from his face before responding. It wouldn't do for the General of the Atlas military to look weak. "Send them in."

"At once sir."

The door to his office made a quiet click, and Polendina, along with a young Tech, pushed into the room.

He noted that while the Tech looked incredibly nervous, Doctor Polendina looked positively ecstatic.

"Polendina. What's so urgent?" he asked.

The old doctor pushed his Tech forward. "Tell him what you told me," he instructed.

The man gulped, before speaking. "Sir, we have detected that an external system breached the Primary Database and had full access to all our files."

Was this some kind of joke?

"The Primary Database is on a closed network," he said factually, "How exactly could an external system access something it is in no way connected to?"

"That's the beauty of it!" Doctor Polendina said, stepping past his tech. "From what we've deduced, the System accessed it through _scrolls_! Even when locked out from accessing it, the scrolls still possess the hardware to do so! The System forced a connection to one of the scrolls in the building through the CCT, and used them to access and control the terminals with high-frequency magnetic waves to establish an external connection!"

By the Brothers.

"What about our firewalls? Surely HighThought slowed it down," he reasoned.

"Well sir," the Tech began, "the System had access to every terminal in the Primary Database. It could have pulled administrator credentials from any number of devices."

"Do we know what it was doing?" he asked, desperation creeping into his voice.

"Yessir. It went straight to HighThought; avoided all other data entirely, actually," the Tech answered.

"It didn't touch our files? What did it do with HighThought?" He was worried about what the intruder wanted with the most powerful AI on all of Remnant.

"We believe it used it to create some form of incredibly accurate recognition software through a machine-learning-based sub-system. It then exported the sub-system, wiped the data from HighThought, and returned control to us."

"How do we know that that's what it was doing if they wiped the data?"

"While it was working, HighThought saved the creation shell of the sub-system to physical memory. After we discovered what the System had done, we found the drives, and managed to recover enough of the information to determine what it had been doing."

Ironwood felt like he was about to have an aneurysm.

"And why the hell are you grinning?" he barked at Polendina.

"A_ human_ couldn't have done this. On the drives, we also managed to recover some of the sub-systems results. The System presented the sub-system with files, and the sub-system tried to identify the contents. Over the span of 13.436 seconds, the sub-system was presented with over a billion files and finished with a margin of error of only 0.54 times ten to the negative four percent. That's a 1 in 1.85 million failure rate. But the thing is, most of these files were pulled from _search engines_, which means that the System had to process and identify all of them! It's an AI!"

An AI? An AI was able to access the most secure network on Remnant?

"How powerful is it?" he asked.

"Our calculations are putting the lower bounds at 1.7 petabytes. It's at a similar scale to the entirety of a human brain. It's an AI that has, at the very least, achieved a Theory of Mind, and is quite possibly self-aware!"

"If it's so powerful, why did it need to use HighThought?" he asked.

"Well," the Tech began, "we believe that whoever created this AI had the forethought to prevent it from creating its own AI. If we can create an AI that is smarter than us, then that AI could create an AI smarter than it, which could in turn make one even smarter, and so on and so on until all organic life is entirely obsolete."

Ironwood stopped for a moment. He thought, then he spoke.

"You." He pointed at the Tech. "What's your name?"

"Watts, sir. Teal Watts."

He reached over to his intercom and activated it.

"Violet," he began, "Double the funding for the Polendina Project, and appoint Technician Teal Watts under Doctor Polendina as the head of the new 'Theory of Mind' team. Technician Watts will send you a document co-signed by himself and Doctor Polendina with the nature and members of this team within 72 hours for myself to review."

"Understood sir."

He turned back to the pair.

"Technician Watts, you are dismissed from all your current obligations, and your new express purpose is to create an AI that achieves Theory of Mind. You are to collect whichever personnel you believe will help you complete this purpose. So long as Doctor Polendina agrees with your choice, they will be appointed under you within the week. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good. You begin now. Dismissed."

The young technician saluted, turned on his heel, and strode out of his office, leaving him with the Doctor.

"And you are to get it awake as so-"

"Her."

He took a long breath. "You are to get _her_ awake as soon as possible, and have _her_ ready for the field. I want her fully operational and tested at least a month before the beginning of the festival."

The older man grinned. "Yes sir."

Ironwood sighed heavily as the Doctor left his office. It seemed the paperwork was increasing every minute.

* * *

**Huzzah! Done! Told you it wouldn't take me 3 months this time; didn't even take half that!**

**Man, this chapter was hints, hints, hints! So many! Also threw in a couple references! I did last chapter too: one of you caught the Titanfall 2 one, but no one saw the other one (I'll let you guys try figure it out; it's pretty obscure).**

**I'm happy with this chapter, both the first section, and the last section, I had written out for the previous chapter, but obviously, it would have made it hella long. Hope you guys don't mind the shorter chapters. **

**But yeah, the plot divergences really start building from now on, and I've got a lot of ideas, and I've already started putting in some subtle foreshadowing. What do you guys think is gonna change?**

**See you all next time!**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	4. Chapter 4

"So who among you believes themselves to show the _true_ qualities of a Huntsman?" Professor Port asked.

"I do, sir!" Weiss declared from the seat behind them.

The professor's face shifted into an emotion Jaune struggled to identify. He looked mildly surprised, mixed with a touch of sadness.

"He looks disappointed," Ruby whispered.

Ah, that was it. Disappointment.

"An expression you're familiar with, I'm sure," slipped from his lips before he could halt it. Damn it, he really had spent too much online.

Yang snorted, and responded with a "Burned, sis." Ruby didn't respond, so Yang took it upon herself to earn a reaction as Port called Weiss to the front of the class.

"You got burned. Burned, sis, _burned_. You just got _so_-"

She cut off with a laugh as Ruby started shoving her.

"Shut! Up!" she demanded, careful to keep her voice to a whisper, "I may have gotten burned, but at least I didn't burn anything _down_," she countered.

Yang gasped in mock offence. "That was one time!"

"We _are_ still in class you know," Blake interrupted, voice warm with amusement.

"Not like we're doing anything; we're just waiting for the cranky girl to get back," Yang retorted with a shrug.

"Well I'd say you could go over your notes," Blake began, sending a quick glance at the blank page on Yang's desk, "but it appears you have none."

Yang snorted. "You actually made some sense of what he was saying?"

"Ah, yes, actually," Jaune interjected, "Although there's a lot of unnecessary spiel, there's actually some really useful information in there, a lot of which isn't included in the, ah, 'textbook'."

The textbook, as it was, was less of a book, and more of a pamphlet, considering the size and content.

He slid his notes over. Although there wasn't much, it was enough to impress Yang, her eyes widening.

"Huh, fair enough, I guess," she conceded. "You really are pretty smart, huh Jaune?"

He spluttered at the sudden compliment. He had enough trouble getting through regular conversations with people as it was, thank-you-very-much! He did not ask to be ambushed by a compliment from a pretty girl. And Yang was certainly pretty. Not that that's all that mattered of course. He was sure she was probably really nice, and funny, and she seemed like a really caring sister to Ruby, which was really awesome because Ruby was like, _super_ awesome and kind and also super cool like she killed that giant Nevermore like it was _easy_ and she put all her trust in him despite not knowing him for very long and that made him feel really really warm and he thought she was even prettier than her sister not that it was a competition but if it were Ruby would definitely win and—

His inner ramblings cut off as Weiss re-entered the classroom, out of uniform and instead donning the battle clothing she'd worn for initiation, dust rapier sheathed at the hip. She carried herself confidently, but Jaune could pick out some discrepancies. She walked with stiffened steps, eyes darting to the floor confirming every motion, and her left hand gripped the hilt of her rapier slightly too tightly.

"Woooo! Go Weiss! Represent Team Spring!" Nora shouted from the seat behind them, waving a little flag fashioned from a pencil and ripped piece of paper that read 'SPRN'. Beside her, waving similar flags were Ren and Pyrrha, the former with a look of resignation plastered across his face.

"You can do it Weiss!" Pyrrha added, dramatically more reserved than her energetic teammate, Nora.

Weiss smiled slightly, before determination creased her brow.

Professor Port had retrieved his weapon from its mount on the wall. A blunderbuss where the stock doubled as the head of a double sided war axe. He stood in front of a large cage, the interior shrouded in shadow, that bucked and whined with the aggressive motion of what was no doubt a Grimm trapped within.

"Alright," Port began, placing his hand on the cage's latch, "Let the match" —he flipped the latch up— "begin!"

The boar like Grimm (a Boarbatusk, a quick glance with his semblance at the revealed) crashed out of the cage and into the light almost immediately. It took a moment to glance around before its eyes locked onto Weiss, rapier drawn and ready, before squealing and charging at the aspiring huntress.

Weiss thrust her rapier at the rapidly approaching Grimm, but it bucked its head up, redirecting the strike as it attempted to gouge Weiss on its large tusks. Weiss smoothly (though narrowly) avoided the attack with a side step, before she danced back across the stage to prepare for another strike.

The boarbatusk slid to a stop, before turning, and snorting in irritation. It charged again, this time stooping forward and _rolling_ at Weiss, like an evil armadillo. Weiss lifted her sword, ready to attack again.

Jaune knew that was a bad idea. The textbook had said that the Boarbatusks were incredibly armoured, and Weiss, even using a piercing weapon, stood no chance of breaking through. With it doing this roll attack, at best her thrust would bounce off, and at worst—

Weiss' attack struck, the point of her sword slipping between the plates of armour, and was wrenched from her arms as the Grimm continued to roll, tossing the blade away.

"Oh-ho!" Port declared, "What will you do without your weapon?"

His voice remained jovial, but his grip shifted on his weapon, lifting it higher as a finger slipped into the trigger guard.

The boarbatusk unrolled itself, and turned to charge at Weiss again. She dodged smoothly, before diving for her weapon and scooping it up as she rolled.

"Go for the underbelly!" Pyrrha called from behind them, "It's unarmoured!"

Weiss' gaze jumped to her, before returning to the Grimm, as she nodded slightly.

The boarbatusk squealed again, and charged once more. Weiss responded by spinning her rapier in hand, and plunging the tip into the stage. At once, a white, snowflake-like glyph appeared in front of the Grimm; going too fast to stop, it stepped onto it and immediately its front hooves stuck to the floor.

The Grimm squealed in surprise as its forward momentum up-ended it, and it fell onto its back. Weiss capitalised, darting forward and plunging her rapier deep within its soft skinned underside, withdrawing her weapon as it slowly collapsed to ash at her feet.

"Bravo! Bra-vo!" Port cheered, clapping his hands together as Nora celebrated from her seat and Weiss caught her breath. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress—" he paused for just a moment, "—in training. Ms. Schnee did an admirable job dispatching the Grimm, and quickly responded to advice from her teammates. If you wish to survive in this harsh world as Huntsmen, you must be able to trust your team without hesitation. Ms. Schnee has displayed that she has already taken important steps towards this." He smiled at Weiss, "Excellent work, now please, you may go get changed back into your uniform."

"Thank you, sir," Weiss said, turning on her heel to return to the changing rooms.

"Now," Port continued, "While Ms. Schnee is away, I would like for you to discuss as a team, having seen how this Grimm, a Boarbatusk, fights, how your team would fight a pack of four of them. Your homework, _due tomorrow_, is to present both a strategy of how your team would fight, and how you _personally_ would fight a boarbatusk one on one like Ms. Schnee has. Once she returns, you may go to your next class. Begin!"

The class filled with chatter and Jaune and Blake turned inward so they could begin their discussion.

"That was something," Yang began, "I can't say I thought he'd actually be like…"

"Like what?" Ruby asked as she trailed off.

"Y'know, _competent_."

"Yang!" Ruby chastised, "That's rude!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "So what do you think we should do, oh magnificent leader?"

Ruby hummed in thought, "Blake and I are the fastest," she said, finger moving to point between them, "so we can keep them distracted while you and Jaune try to take them out. More specifically, you can probably work on flipping them Yang, and maybe cover Jaune so he can give more accurate calls and strategies with his Semblance? I'm not sure…" she finished, uncertain.

"That sounds smart," Yang quickly affirmed, before she turned to Jaune. "What _is_ your Semblance by the way? Some kind of super intelligence thing? You had some pretty exact steps for us during initiation."

He glanced around the class and pursed his lips. There were a lot of people within ear-shot.

"I'll uh, I'll tell you a bit later," he offered.

Yang glanced around the class as well, before nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders with a casual "S'fine. Anyway, got anything else to add to Ruby's idea?"

"I think it's pretty good." He saw Ruby smile out of the corner of his eye. "If we keep things fast, we should be able to keep them relatively clustered so they can't surround us, then we can isolate one and pick it off. When we get them down to two, I think we should probably take a more direct approach and play it in pairs. Yang and I can act as tanks, while you two-" he gestured at Ruby and Blake, "can work as offense."

Blake nodded appreciatively. "If we're expecting more, it's likely a bad idea to just expend Aura by tanking hits, but if it's just the four, this would work the quickest."

"Agreed."

"You're a real tough cookie, aren'tcha Jaune?" Yang laughed. "If you were as fast as you are tough, I think you'd give Ruby a run for her money. I know for sure _I _wouldn't wanna be stuck under a Deathstalker like you were."

Jaune grimaced, and Ruby's gaze downturned. "Yeah, not a fun experience. Sorry, Grimm, but I can't recommend it. Zero out of ten, would not be stabbed again."

That got a laugh from Ruby, which pleased him greatly.

"Don't worry Jaune," Ruby smiled reassuringly, "We're all gonna work together and keep everyone safe!" she said, determination radiating from her voice and smile.

"Sounds good, oh magnificent leader," he returned, parroting Yang and earning a giggle.

It was then that Weiss returned. She spoke to Port for a moment, before nodding and returning to her desk to pack away her things.

"Alright!" Port clapped his hands together. "Good first lesson everyone, you may pack up your things now. Please remember that your homework is due tomorrow. It doesn't have to be much, but 'hit it until it's dead' isn't enough! You have..." He glanced at his watch. "Seven minutes until your next class, so take a short break if you need it. Dismissed!"

The students all gathered their things and slowly filtered out through the door.

Jaune looked at his timetable and found their next class to be Combat Training with a Professor Goodwitch, after that was lunch at 2pm, then Dust Studies with Professor Peach, and the day finished with a history class with Doctor Oobleck.

"So where to, Jaune?" Yang asked, as they made their way out of the classroom.

"Combat Training with Professor Goodwitch, room 13-D." He pointed a finger to the left corridor. "That way."

"Lead the way Jaune!" Ruby grinned.

* * *

Combat Training had, interestingly enough, actually involved no combat but had instead introduced how the sparring matches would take place, the safety measures in place, rules, etc. It had also hammered home just how terrifying Ms. Goodwitch was.

She was a beautiful woman, perhaps mid-thirties, and also very, _very intimidating_, with a glare that Jaune was sure could either freeze or boil water, depending on what torture she wished to inflict. She also seemed to have a vendetta against Jaune already. He wasn't sure how, as he hadn't even done anything to earn her ire yet. Perhaps she had some form of ESP for finding trouble makers.

With the second class done, it was time for lunch.

His team had collected their lunch, and was now looking for a table to sit at, when Jaune spotted Team Spring, or more specifically, Pyrrha, whose battle equipment looked too similar to the spear that had saved him during initiation to be mere coincidence.

The guilt he felt at not having even given his thanks to the person who saved his life pushed him forward.

The seated team glanced up as he approached.

"Uh, hi Pyrrha."

A smooth start from team Jaune.

She smiled at him. "Jaune, wasn't it? Did you need something?"

"Yeah, that's me. Um, I just wanted to ask; during initiation, that spear was yours, wasn't it?"

Pyrrha flushed slightly. "Yes, that was me. I'm sorry, it was rude of me to step in like that-"

"Oh, no no no no no, I'm not upset," he quickly denied, "I actually came to thank you. You almost definitely saved my life with that throw."

"Oh." She smiled again. "It's not a problem, Jaune. I just thought you might appreciate the help-" Her eyes widened in surprise, "-not that I doubt your ability! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it in that way."

Jaune laughed. "It's fine. I definitely _did_ need the help."

"You saved Jaune?" Ruby asked, head tilting slightly as she stepped up beside him.

"Um, yes, I suppose I did," Pyrrha answered, looking mildly embarrassed.

Ruby stepped right up to Pyrrha, leaning down slightly.

"We're best friends now," she declared.

Pyrrha blinked in surprise as Ruby calmly took a seat on the other side of the table, Yang, and then Blake, soon following suit, until he was the only one standing.

He tried to smile at the surprised team, though he believes it came out closer to a grimace. "Sorry to impose," he offered, taking the last seat on the far right, beside his partner.

"Pshhh, you're fine," the redhead of team SPRN, Nora, called, before she turned to her friend and partner, Ren.

"Ren, Ren, did you see?" she began, and Jaune could practically feel the excited energy buzzing off her. "They have _pancakes_! Can we get some? Do you think they're good? They won't be as good as _yours,_ of course, but I still want them! Can we get some? Can we can we can we?!"

Ren, expression stoic, let out a long sigh. "After you've eaten your lunch, yes, we can get some pancakes."

Nora vibrated in her seat, buzzing with excited energy at the prospect of the delicious treat, before digging into her meal with gusto, as Blake offered her partner a look of condolence.

Meanwhile Ruby was quick to learn more about her new best friend.

"So where are you from Pyrrha?" she inquired.

Pyrrha smiled. "My family is from Mistral," she answered.

"But you chose to come to Beacon instead of Haven?"

Pyrrha's smile turned strained. "Yes. There was, um, attention I wanted to avoid from Haven."

"Attention?" Ruby asked innocently.

Weiss nodded. "Pyrrha is the four-time winner of the Mistral Regional Cup, the only person to ever do so, and the youngest to ever win." Weiss grimaced. "I came here for a similar reason, to avoid the attention and favouritism that my name garners, yet the first thing I did was talk about your accomplishments, so I apologise Pyrrha. I, of all people, should have recognised your desire to avoid these kinds of situations."

Pyrrha waved her hands in front of her face. "No, no, it's alright, you couldn't have known if I hadn't spoken of it."

"Eh?" Yang interjected, "Four-time winner? You must be pretty good then, I'd love to see just how good myself sometime." Yang smirked, giving Pyrrha a wink.

Pyrrha returned a confident stare, "I'm sure you'll get a chance to lose in Combat class."

Yang laughed. "Oh, I like you, P-money. Sounds like fun," she said with a grin, before stretching an arm across the table. "May the best woman win?"

Pyrrha took it and shook, offering a genuine smile. "May the best woman win," she agreed.

* * *

Dust studies had passed (mostly) without incident save for when Yang froze her finger to her desk after dropping a dust vial. Professor Peach was a short, unassuming woman who had directed the class to a simple lab activity in the textbook before disappearing into the back room.

With the end of that class, their final class was History with Professor Oobleck.

Speaking of, the door to the class slid open and the professor, a very tall (two metres or so) man with green hair and disheveled attire holding a large thermos stepped into the room.

"GoodmorningclassmynameisBartholemewOobleck-PleasecallmeDoctorOobleck-TodaywellwillbelookingattheHumanFaunusWar," the man said at an incredible speed, before taking a quick sip from his thermos.

Jaune (and surely the rest of the class) blinked in surprise, and it took him a moment to process what the prof- _Doctor_ -had said, but now he had an idea of the manic energy the man had, and would hopefully now be able to keep up.

"Now-please, take-out-your-textbooks-and-turn-to-page-fifty-one-so-we-may-begin."

"The only thing I heard from that was 'fifty one'," Ruby whispered.

"In the textbook," he whispered back, "Human-Faunus War."

Jaune and Ruby (along with a girl a few rows behind) pulled their books from their bags, and the others around were quick to follow suit, each student finding the correct page from the people behind them, gradually spreading outwards like a wave until finally the attention returned to Doctor Oobleck.

"In the shadow of the Great War, just five years after its conclusion, the Human-Faunus War was sparked, and is the second largest conflict in recorded history, both in number of combatants, and in lives lost," Oobleck began, before he noticed a raised hand. "Yes, Mister Winchester?"

Winchester (Cardin, he vaguely remembered), lowered his hand and spoke. "Why do we have to learn this stuff? The stupid animals lucked out a victory so we gave them a shitty island. Done deal. Can we move on?"

Ah, so he was a racist.

He hazarded a glance at Blake, and saw her glaring at the boy.

Doctor Oobleck watched Cardin with a cold stare. "There is, in fact, a legitimate reason we learn this Mister Winchester. As a man much wiser than I once said: 'Those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it'. Now, the Battle of Fort Castle is often referred to as the turning point of the war. Can you tell me, Mister Winchester, what advantage the Faunus had over General Legune's forces that caused them to win the engagement, despite it being an ambush?"

"Well," he said after a moment, "I know it's a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier."

Doctor Oobleck shook his head. "Mister Winchester, you will be staying after class, where we will attempt to curb your blatant racism, or you will be expelled. Now," he continued, ignoring Cardin's irate outburst, "can anyone tell me the correct answer?"

Jaune raised his hand.

"Ah, Mister Arc. You had an excellent academic score, if I recall correctly. Would you care to provide some insight?"

"Of course, Doctor. General Legune had the idea to ambush the Faunus under the cover of night. However, what he didn't know is that Faunus, having inherited traits from the animal kingdom, generally have much greater night vision than humans, which allowed them to quickly turn the battle around. If _some_ people are any indication," he continued, glancing at Cardin, "I'd say that Faunus not only have better eyesight, but much better personalities too."

Cardin glared at him and sneered, but Jaune held his gaze until he turned back to the front of the class. He turned back as well, catching Blake's smirk in his periphery.

"Precisely Mr Arc. Perhaps if he had listened in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as a failure."

Jaune saw Blake smirk wider from the corner of his eye.

"Moving on!" Doctor Oobleck announced, taking back control of the class.

* * *

"Well, that guy was an asshole."

"Yang!" Ruby chastised.

"What? It's true. He's an asshole," she affirmed.

"I know he is, but you don't have to be so rude about it. Being rude to him isn't gonna make him less rude," Ruby argued.

"Being nice to him isn't either, so I may as well do my best to make him uncomfortable," Yang countered.

Ruby put a hand on her chin. "Good point. He's a butthead!"

Blake rolled her eyes, but a smile was stuck on her lips, before it disappeared into a look of deep thought.

"Um." Blake paused, unsure. "There's something you should know about me."

"What is it? Are you okay?" Ruby asked with concern.

Blake smiled wearily. "Yeah. I'm okay."

Blake lifted her arms, and slowly undid her bow.

Ruby's eyes widened.

"You're a faunus?" Yang asked, not hostile, simply curious.

Jaune blinked. "You guys didn't know?"

"Didn't know?" Ruby asked "You did?! And you hid it from me? How could you block me from such cuteness? Worst! Partner! Ever!"

Jaune couldn't help but smile in amusement.

Blake looked at him with wide eyes. "You… knew?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Yeah?"

"How…" she trailed off.

"Bows are usually affected by wind," he answered, smiling kindly.

Blake breathed deep and sighed deeper. "I suppose that's true," she conceded, before tipping her head in the direction of Yang and Ruby, "It fooled them though, so it must be working to some degree."

"That, or they're just horribly unobservant."

Blake chuckled as the sisters gave an indignant "Hey!"

"Or that," she said, before her face returned to a thoughtful frown.

"You okay Blake?" Yang asked.

She nodded slowly. "I guess i just thought it would be… different somehow?"

"You thought we'd treat you differently?" Ruby asked, "But you're still the same cool ninja girl! Nothing changed."

Blake smiled again, a much more open smile. "Yeah. I suppose nothing did change."

* * *

Teal Watts rubbed at tired eyes, trying his best to keep them open as the cursor on his screen blinked at him, unmoving.

He'd hit his first hurdle, and he knew it.

He knew he was close to getting past it, but there was something he was missing. Maybe if he-

His scroll buzzed.

He sighed, then answered.

"Hey Uncle," he greeted, doing his best to sound alert.

"Teal..." the man sighed, "What are you doing still at work? It's past midnight."

Teal sighed. "I know, I just… I want to get this part done. I've been stuck here for a couple of hours now and I just want to be past it."

He heard a hum of acknowledgement on the other end of the line. "I know how you're feeling. It's the Watts family curse. What is it you're stuck on, might I ask?"

"I'm trying to create a general AI, and I'm starting the process by creating a reinforcement learning system to emulate deep learning, but instead of actually improving, it's just running the first generation on loop," he explained, realising a little late that he was probably giving away confidential information.

Who was he kidding, it was his Uncle! He'd looked up to him for as long as he could remember, and he was sure that the man would do his best to help him.

"Hm. Are your modifiers all set up?"

"Yeah. I've got my initial parameters and modification parameters configured, though I'll probably adjust them as testing begins."

"Yes yes, but are your parameters actually _linked_? You can have as many as you'd like, but if your system isn't reading them as modifiers, nothing will change."

Teal blinked, and quickly checked his code.

There were his parameters, resting there as free standing variables, and not modifiers.

He slapped a palm to his face, and quickly added in the code to correct the mistake, then ran a test simulation.

Lo and behold, the second generation changed from the first.

"By Oum," he moaned, "I can't believe I missed that."

A chuckle came through the scroll.

"A mind addled by lack of sleep will oft run in circles young Teal. Now, you really should get some rest."

"I know, I know. Thanks for the help Uncle Arthur, I really appreciate it."

"Of course Teal, you know you're my favourite nephew."

Teal smiled, "I'm your _only_ nephew."

"Bah, semantics," the man replied, though Teal could hear the smile in his voice. "If you need help, don't hesitate to ask. I know a decent bit about AI myself."

"I know you do Uncle," Teal replied, "But I feel guilty accepting all your help, especially after you helped me so much in choosing the team."

"Don't worry about it my boy, now go get some sleep. I'll see if I can stop by tomorrow afternoon."

He smiled, he hadn't seen the man in person in some time. "That sounds great Uncle. Goodnight."

"Goodnight my boy."

* * *

Arthur Watts kicked his feet up onto the table.

"That boy," he chided. "So very brilliant, yet so, so foolish."

"You believe this will aid us, Arthur? You know how much I hate to waste time."

His feet quickly returned to the floor, and he straightened in his seat. "Yes. If young Teal succeeds, and I'm sure he will, it will provide us with a powerful asset."

"Good," said Salem, the Queen of Grimm and Bane of Humanity, "See that it is."

"I will, your Grace. I hear that your acquisition of Fall was a success?"

"Correct."

"We know that Ozpin's lapdog was tailing the girl, so that he fell back is quite odd."

"It is. You have an idea?"

"I do, and I believe it may be what spurred Atlas' newest project."

"I see. Find out what you can. You have a week, then return to your current project.

"It will be done."

"See that it is."

* * *

**Hello all, sorry for the wait, but I'm back!**

**I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing, but I was sick pretty bad the last two weeks (not COVID, thankfully), but I'm feeling better again!**

**I was saddened to find that none of you spotted the reference I threw in, in the last chapter! The number of tests Jaune did is the number of dust motes Jaune counts in Imyoshi's fic 'Silver'. It's a great fic, and I totally recommend checking it out!**

**In other news, I made a Twitter account, and I'll try posting updates there when I can (my handle is H3ctic4328. Also, feel free to say hello to me on Discord! There's a link to a fanfiction server that I'm active in at the bottom of my profile.**

**Until next time (which will hopefully be soon)!**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Ow! That hurts! Please… let go!"

Jaune scowled as Cardin yanked on the ears of a poor faunus girl.

Ruby, beside him, sported a similar expression. "What a jerk."

Cardin laughed. "See? I told you they were real," he said to his teammates, who jeered at the rabbit faunus.

"Atrocious," Pyrrha said, "I cannot _stand_ people like that."

Jaune looked at Blake. She sat at her seat, avidly ignoring the dirtbag, schooling a seething anger beneath a mask of apathy.

Jaune stood from his chair abruptly. If no one else was going to do anything about Cardin, _he_ would.

"Jaune?"

"I'll just be a minute Ruby," he told his partner, forcing a smile, before taking quick steps to the nearby table.

"Please just stop!" the girl said.

"Excuse me!" he interjected, shifting his expression into a polite smile.

Cardin looked over his shoulder at him, sneering. "What do _you_ want, twerp?"

"Well, I'd like for you to let her go. You're being quite rude," he answered.

"Hah? Oh, come to save the damsel have you? Save her from the big bad so you can get a little sucky behind the building, have you? Fucking animal lover."

Jaune laughed. "Isn't that rather ironic, coming from you?"

Cardin paled, ever so slightly.

"The fuck you talking about?"

"Oh you know, given your faunus based search history on certain, rather _illicit_, websites, I would have thought you'd be kinder to them. And if you don't want a list of said browser history to be emailed to Ms. Goodwitch—" his smile dropped, and he glared at the boy "—you will let her go. _Now_."

Jaune would be lying if he said the way Cardin's skin went white didn't make him smirk.

Cardin glared at him, red venturing onto his skin. "Fine," he said, finally letting the girl go, "Have fun with the _freak_, animal lover."

Cardin stalked away, and with confusion etched into their features, his team followed.

Jaune watched them go, before turning to the faunus girl.

"Hey," he said gently, "You alright?"

The girl smiled tiredly. "I'm fine. Thank you for the help."

"It's no problem. I'm… Jaune, by the way," he said, offering a hand to shake, his awkwardness quickly returning.

She took his hand in her much smaller hand and shook it. "Velvet," she introduced.

He nodded. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, why didn't you stop them? You're a second year, aren't you? I saw you sitting with the second years in History yesterday. You could've dealt with them easily."

Velvet sighed. "If I'd fought back they would have just gone after someone else. So if they're going to go after someone no matter what, I'd rather it be me." She smiled, a little deviously. "Hopefully, with a threat like _that_, he'll lay off for a while."

Jaune pursed his lips, and sighed. "_Hopefully_," he agreed. "You're really cool Velvet," he told her honestly. Willingly taking punishment to protect others she'd probably never met was seriously brave. "And, well, if you have any troubles, my friends and I sit just over there," he gestured back at their table, "so don't be a stranger."

Velvet smiled. "Thanks Jaune. You're pretty cool too, you know?"

He coughed into his hand to hide the red creeping onto his cheeks..

Another compliment? Seriously? Ugh, he was gonna explode if this kept happening.

Velvet giggled at his reaction. "Bye Jaune, enjoy the rest of your lunch!" she told him, before walking away to get a tray of food.

He returned to his seat without a word, everyone at the table watching quietly.

"Hey Jaune," Ruby said, bumping him lightly with her shoulder.

He turned to find her beaming up at him.

"You're really awesome," she told him.

It was the sincerity, he thought, more than anything, that made his cheeks flush.

Yang laughed. "Really showed him, didn'tcha Jaune?"

Jaune groaned as the others heaped on the praise, laying his head on the table and covering it with his arms.

He was definitely gonna explode.

He quickly fled with the excuse of retrieving something from his room, though he couldn't help but see the amused smiles of his friends.

Jaune left the cafeteria, and a man fell into step beside him, walking with a casual stride and with hands behind his head.

"Browser history? Geez kid, talk about going for the throat," the man said, amusement colouring his voice.

He had a deep, grizzled voice, and breath that reeked of liquor. His hair and clothes were unkempt, dark grey spikey hair hung in front of his eyes, and a patchy red cape followed him as he walked.

The man was suspicious. Not just because he appeared out of nowhere and was following Jaune, but rather, his eyes were cold and calculating, carefully planning each word and step. His body language, which appeared casual and relaxed at first, was far too orderly to be anything but practiced.

Plus, there was the large mecha-shift weapon sitting on his lower back.

Yeah. That was probably it.

"I guess," he offered, non committal. "I thought it was probably the best way to deal with it. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Non-violent, didn't take shit from him, confident, no room for confusion," the man listed, nodding, before shooting him a thumbs up and a grin. "Real nicely done, kid."

"Thanks."

The man looked him up and down. "You're Jaune, right?" he asked.

Jaune looked at him suspiciously.

"My nieces told me about'cha," he explained. "Well, one of 'em did. The other's a lazy brat who won't ever text her poor old uncle."

"You're Qrow then?"

He looked surprised. "They told you about me already?"

"Something like that," he offered. In reality, his Semblance got him the answer, and proved his claim, even if it _was_ suspiciously difficult to find a picture of the man. The only one he could find was from eighteen years ago, a team photo with Taiyang Xiao Long (Ruby and Yang's father), Summer Rose (Ruby's deceased mother), and Raven Branwen (Qrow's twin, and Yang's runaway mother) from their fourth year at Beacon.

He pitied Taiyang. His first wife disappeared as soon as his daughter was born, and his second died just a few years later. He was glad his family had remained whole, even if it _was_ a very big 'whole'.

"So you came to see your nieces then?" Jaune asked.

Qrow nodded, then turned to him. "Hey, would ya mind keepin' quiet about my being here? I wanna surprise the girls."

Jaune smiled. "Yeah I can do that."

Qrow grinned. "Cheers kid. Take care of yourself, I gotta run. Old man Oz' got a job for me apparently."

"Ouch. All work and no play, huh? Unlucky you."

Qrow snickered. "Yeah, I'd say that describes me pretty well. Later kid." Qrow offered a small salute as he turned a corner and made off.

"See you Qrow."

He was a strange man, but he seemed fun. Jaune liked him.

* * *

He was a strange kid, but he seemed smart. Qrow liked him.

It was a short walk to Ozpin's office. He stepped into the elevator, and was swiftly taken up.

"Oz," he greeted, as the doors slid open.

"Qrow," he returned, getting up from his seat and walking to his private elevator. "Come with me, please."

He nodded, and quickly joined him inside. The doors slid open, and the elevator went down.

Down, down, down, past Ozpin's study, past his room, and down further still.

Qrow raised an eyebrow. They were going all the way down?

Finally, the doors slid open, revealing the cavernous space behind. The Vault.

Ozpin strode out, and Qrow hurried to follow. Ozpin took the first left, and stopped in the corridor.

"We should be safe from prying eyes now," he said.

"Wha- Oz, what's going on?"

Ozpin sighed and turned, hands clasped behind his back as he looked down the dimly lit corridor. "A young man joined our ranks two days ago. His transcripts were forged, excellently so, so I allowed him to attend so that I could question him as to they're origin."

Certainly sounded like one of Ozpin's schemes.

"He was flung over Emerald forest with the rest at initiation, and, as it turns out, without aura. He was saved by a student from falling to his death, and then subsequently had his aura unlocked by your niece, Miss Rose."

Qrow blinked in surprise. That Jaune kid faked his way in? Why was he still here if Oz knew he wasn't legitimate?

"And, a moment later, his Semblance materialised."

So quickly? Was it like his then? Some passive ability? If so, how was Oz so certain of it? Qrow hadn't noticed anything off about the kid.

"He collapsed, and gave Miss Rose quite the fright. A minute later, he regained control, and led them through the forest with an unusually high degree of confidence. He warned Miss Rose of oncoming Grimm far earlier than they entered sensory range, and displayed similar knowledge when they grouped up with other examinees. Later, he displayed a knack for quick thinking, and developing complex strategies and precise calculations."

Ozpin turned back to face him.

"He passed. Once the team ceremony was over, I brought him to my office to question him. You know how rare foresight Semblances are."

Qrow nodded.

"However, the young man surprised me. His Semblance was not foresight, but instead a technological one. He had attained mental access to the camera system set up in the forest, and was using it to survey his surroundings."

Qrow's eyes widened. That kind of ability, in an urban environment, would be beyond valuable.

"I asked him to give me a demonstration. I laid my scroll on my desk and asked him to turn the screen on. He did so, then he _unlocked_ it, without so much as a pause."

Qrow's jaw dropped. A top of the line scroll, with some of Atlas' best encryption software, bypassed in a moment?

Ozpin nodded gravely. "That's not all. Based on a rather panicked call from James I received yesterday, it would seem the boy also managed to gain access to Atlas' top secret, off-grid facility, make use of their top of the line artificial intelligence, and make off, nearly without detection, all while seated in class."

At this point, Qrow was beyond surprised. He quickly changed his evaluation of Jaune from 'kinda funny kid' to 'bullshit incarnate'. He felt that if he just accepted that Jaune would never confine to expectations, he would save his mind a lot of trouble.

"Okay, so the kid is basically just pure brain fuckery, got it," he said, making his thoughts known to Ozpin.

"Quite," Ozpin agreed. "I need you to protect him at all costs. This boy could be our greatest ally, or our most terrifying adversary. I want _you_ to make sure he remains an ally, however you can. Gain his trust, be his friend, help him train, anything," Ozpin instructed. "I've seen that he and miss Rose share a... mutual interest in one another. I want you to foster this. We _need_ to tie him to us."

"Wha- Ozpin!" Qrow cried in outrage, "I'm not going to _manipulate_-"

"Qrow!" Ozpin barked, "He could _end _us! With a _thought_, he could bring down _everything we have_," the man hissed, in an incredibly rare show of emotion. "If Salem gets her hands on him, we will be brought to our knees in an instant. We _must_ keep him from Her if we wish to survive. I understand how you feel Qrow, but you must understand how _I _feel. I would not ask you to do this if I thought it were not something they both already wish for. Please Qrow, just watch them, and you will see."

"I…" Qrow swallowed thickly, and he saw the crushing weight of responsibility in the eyes of the man he had always seen as immovable, the mask of calm slowly cracking. "Okay Oz," he croaked, turning away from the man.

"Qrow," Ozpin said quietly, and he turned back to face him. "Thank you," he said sincerely.

Qrow nodded numbly, before he turned to return to the elevator.

"And Qrow." He turned. "Would you train him? He will need both your and miss Rose's assistance when he acquires his new weapon."

Qrow groaned. "Yeah yeah, I'll see what I can do."

He rode the elevator up in silence, before lightly banging his head into the door. He breathed in deeply, and sighed.

It was much too early for fate-of-the-world secrets.

* * *

Jaune and his team returned to their room after another day of classes.

"Ugh," Yang groaned, as Ruby twisted the door handle. "I can't believe Professor Oobleck—"

"Doctor," he corrected quietly.

Yang rolled her eyes, and ignored him, "—wants so much done by tomorrow."

Ruby swung the door open, and gasped in surprise. At the back of the room, sitting nonchalantly on the window sill, was Qrow. He turned to face them, and grinned.

"Hey kiddo," he greeted.

"Uncle Qrow!" she shouted in glee, dropping her bag and running at the man, before diving at him to embrace him in a hug.

Qrow startled and flailed, as his already precarious position was unsettled, and Ruby's voice quickly shifted from a squeal of joy, to a yelp of surprise as they tipped out the second story window.

"Ruby!" he and Yang shouted in tandem, quickly running to the window. They looked out and down, to find Qrow hanging onto the window sill by his fingers. Ruby remained firmly attached to his midsection, giggling.

Qrow groaned, looking up at Jaune and Yang. "Mind helpin' out?"

"Real smooth, Qrow," Jaune said, as he and Yang took hold of his wrists and pulled him back into the building.

Qrow was unceremoniously dumped on the floor, Ruby falling with him.

"Hey kid?" he said, propping himself up on an elbow. "Shut up."

Jaune snorted, and Ruby shook off her confusion, before leaping back at Qrow and wrapping her arms around him again.

Qrow grunted, lifting an arm to look under it at the girl.

"Hi." She grinned up at him.

He stood up suddenly, and Ruby fell to the floor with a quiet "oomph", before she sprung back to her feet, and returned to hugging that man's arm.

"Did you miss me?" she asked, "Did you miss me?!"

He grinned at her. "Nope," he denied smugly, before rubbing the top of her head with his hand.

"Do you know Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked Jaune, curiosity filling her voice.

"Kinda?" he answered, "I ran into him at lunch."

"And you didn't tell me?" Ruby asked, pouting. "When will the secrets end!" she cried dramatically, looking towards the roof.

"Hey, he asked me to!" Jaune said, pointing at Qrow.

"Wow, throw me under the bus, why don'tcha?" Qrow snickered, "But it's true. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Like being pushed out the window kind of surprise?" Yang asked, crossing her arms with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, real funny Firecracker. Almost as funny as when you set the kitchen on fire," Qrow retorted.

Yang groaned. "Why does everyone default to that for a counter? It only happened once!"

Qrow shrugged. "'Cos it's funny."

"You've still got to tell us about that, by the way," Blake said.

Yang groaned louder.

Blake stepped properly into the room, and extended a hand to Qrow. "I'm Blake," she introduced.

"Yeah, I know. _One_ of my nieces actually tells me things," he said, sending a mock glare at Yang as she collapsed onto Blake's bed.

She propped herself up on an elbow, opening and shutting her hand like a talking mouth. "Whine whine whine," she said with an eye-roll, "And you wonder why I _don't_ talk to you, old man."

"Ouch," he laughed, turning back to Blake and shaking her hand. "I hope you're not as vicious as they are." He waved vaguely at Jaune and Yang.

She chuckled. "I'd hope not."

Qrow's eyes flicked to her bow, then back down. "A faunus, huh? Not hiding it from your team, I hope?"

Blake's shoulders (and her ears, Jaune noticed) slumped as she dropped Qrow's hand. "It's not _that_ obvious, is it?" she asked, dejectedly.

"It is," he and Qrow answered simultaneously.

Blake let out a low whine.

"Aw, it's not that bad Blake," Ruby comforted, "You had _us_ fooled." she pointed at herself, then Yang.

"And what does that say about your perception Ruby?" Jaune asked with a grin.

She poked her tongue at him. "I think it says more about _your_ perception, Jaune."

"Yeah," Yang chimed in, "and how it's on par with a top level Huntsman, Gadget Man."

"Aww," Qrow cooed sarcastically, "You're gonna make me blush Firecracker." He turned to Jaune. "And Gadget Man? What's the story behind that?" he asked with a snort of laughter.

"Semblance," he said simply, doing his best to remain casual.

Qrow nodded. "Oh yeah, Oz told me a little about that." He grinned at Jaune. "And how much you suck with a sword."

"Wow, rude," Jaune said, but he couldn't contain the grin. Banter was always fun when it was with someone good at it.

He noticed that Qrow had (possibly intentionally) let slip that Ozpin trusted the man enough to reveal his Semblance to him. If Ozpin trusted him so much, he supposed he could too.

"I'll have to show you how a 'top level Huntsman' fights," he said, plopping down on Jaune's bed. "Maybe I'll show you some moves; see if I can bring you up to par."

* * *

Jaune grunted as he was knocked to the floor for the dozenth time in ten minutes.

Qrow was certainly keeping to his word.

"C'mon kid, you gotta _roll_ with the fall," Qrow instructed.

"It's not easy when my legs are kicked forwards," Jaune remarked.

Qrow rolled his eyes, and offered a hand. "That's the point kid. It's not meant to be easy."

Jaune took his hand, and was pulled to his feet. "I know," he sighed, "Still sucks though."

Qrow grinned, the massive sword sitting casually in his hand. "Oh yeah," he agreed, before returning to the basic stance he'd shown Jaune. "Again."

Jaune mirrored his pose, lifting up the longsword he'd borrowed from the weapon rack. When he'd picked it up, after just a couple of swings, he knew it was the weapon for him. The weight in the swings, combined with the reach it offered was fantastic.

"Good," Qrow commended, "But point your back foot out further, or it'll be too easy to knock you down from the side."

He did as he was told, and Qrow nodded.

"Better. Now go!"

Jaune ran forward, lifting the sword and swinging it down at Qrow's left shoulder.

Qrow blocked, lifting a hand from the hilt of his weapon to catch the weight of his swing, before pushing back, throwing Jaune's blade upward.

As Qrow had done to him just earlier, he went with the momentum, stepping back and spinning the blade around him, before stepping back in to deliver the swing on the opposite side with significantly more force than the first.

Still on the defensive, Qrow parried, knocking it away from his body as he took a short step backward.

With his sword knocked upward, Jaune pulled it back down towards Qrow's head.

Qrow blocked again, a hand once more traveling to the flat of the blade.

Jaune quickly retracted the blade as Qrow attempted to push it up again, then stepped into a forward thrust at Qrow's midsection.

The man deflected it left, and Jaune used his forward motion to drop down for a low, sweeping kick, the same one Qrow had just used to knock him down.

Qrow nimbly hopped over his leg, before planting a foot in his now exposed back, and shoving him away.

Jaune stumbled for a couple steps, before going with his momentum and rolling forward, popping up and rotating around his left heel to face back to Qrow, sword at the ready.

"Nice kid!" Qrow commended, grinning as he casually lifted his sword to rest on his shoulder. "You learn quick, eh?"

Jaune huffed out a tired breath. "Wanted to see if I could surprise you with it."

"Well you certainly did. But you over-committed to that kick. You should've pulled your leg back in as soon as I jumped, and stepped back on your spin," he instructed, "Like this."

He dropped low, his right leg swinging around for a roughly 90 degree arc (as opposed his own 120 degree kick), before he pulled his leg in and stood up, still spinning his right foot back to take a quick step backwards and lift his sword up again.

Jaune nodded. He thought he'd be able to use it, now that he'd seen the move in its entirety. The first had seen him looking to the sky as he fell on his ass.

"Your recovery was good," Qrow continued, "but you should take a couple more steps before you roll. You were still within range for me to attack there, and it's not easy to defend yourself on the floor. Your moves were good, but you're gonna need to learn to do more than just swish, swish, stab," he said with a chuckle.

"Jaune!" Ruby called, jogging up to him with a wide smile, "You were so awesome! You're improving so much!"

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, a light flush forming on his cheeks. "I've still got a long way to go, though."

Ruby smiled, full of warmth and support. "I know you can do it Jaune."

Jaune smiled too. He would do it. To keep Ruby smiling like that, he'd become the best Huntsman in the world.

* * *

**Hello again all!**

**Two chapters in two weeks? I'm crazy! But well, I'm happy to say that you can expect more of this going forward! From now on, I plan to return to my old weekly updates! Chapter updates won't be increasing to their old values unfortunately, I can't keep up with that much with my life as it is lol.**

**Another thing, big thanks to my two editors, Irmad and GotSh0cks, because I really don't credit them enough. Especially big thanks to Sh0cks, as he's an incredibly talented editor, and a good friend.**

**Finally, follow me on Twitter at H3ctic4328 - I post chapter progression updates, teasers, and in the future, I hope to include polls and more!**

**I'm also active on discord. gg/thehoard so come say hi!**

**See you all next week!**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	6. Chapter 6

The weeks passed quickly as Jaune fell into routine.

For Jaune's history and dust studies, Ozpin had organised significantly different assessments. Due to his Semblance, calculations and memorization of figures and facts were incredibly easy, so instead of questions like 'What was the name of the general of the human army at the battle of Fort Castle', or 'What would be the resultant reaction of a combination of granulated Grade VI Ice Dust with powdered Grade III Fire Dust', he had questions like 'How could a shortage of high grade fire Dust influence a team of Huntsman, and what could be used as a substitute', and 'Describe the socio-economic influence the Faunus war had, and how its impact could have been minimised'.

Grimm studies hadn't really changed in a meaningful way. Port rambled on, with brief moments on insight shrouded in layers of needlessly complex exposition, while Jaune spent most of his time working on his pet project, something he was very proud of.

He was calling it the Grimmdex, a scroll application that could identify any species of Grimm with just an image, then take you to a page with detailed information (that Jaune was still filling out). Each page was detailed with weaknesses, strategies to fight them, behaviour, and more. He was also including an 'unconfirmed' section (where he was including most of Port's information) where users of the app could add more information themselves and also vote on whether or not the information was legitimate.

His hope was that it would become the go-to source of information for Huntsmen around the world, its content and accuracy growing as more and more people used it. From his venture into Atlas' secret facility, he had the image recognition software he needed, but he still had to develop and streamline the interface of the app itself, so it would still be at least a few weeks before it went live.

His training with Qrow was going well. He had a suspicion that Qrow saw training him as a challenge, both as a fighter and a teacher, working Jaune tirelessly towards, improving his stance, strikes, positioning, Aura control, and more. It was grueling but Jaune couldn't argue with the results, as by both Qrow and Ruby's words, he was improving by leaps and bounds.

In combat class, he had managed to dodge his first fight, with the excuse that his weapon was still in development (which was true), however for the second fight he was scheduled, against Cardin, Ms. Goodwitch had him bring the longsword he'd been practicing with to class to use instead. He had lost, but it was a near thing. He had managed to bring Cardin's Aura down below 40% before he himself was knocked below 20% and the match was called. Ms. Goodwitch had said that while his combat ability was lacking, his ability to improvise and adapt to Cardin's powerful swings and patterns of attack was commendable.

Cardin had, for the most part, ceased his bullying since Jaune threatened him, at least whenever Jaune was in the vicinity, anyways. Jaune was grateful he'd managed to make an impact on the bullying, but saddened that he couldn't stop it completely. His threat had also, expectedly, earned Cardin's ire. Whenever their glances crossed, Cardin would scowl or sneer at him, and he took great pleasure in his sparring victory over Jaune.

As for his weapon, the design was complete! He and Ruby had spent hours and hours modifying, tweaking, and even scrapping the entire design to get the result he wanted, but they had finished it! They'd sent it in to Beacon's forgers, and the pieces would be ready for assembly in under a week. Since early in the design phase, Ruby had begun training him in marksmanship, and he had taken to it like a duck to water. Within no time at all, he was able to land a five shot, five centimetre grouping at 800 metres.

He believed that was due in part to his improvements with his semblance. He was now consciously able to use the computing power of devices around him to make on-the-fly complex calculations. Ozpin had him further working on combining this ability with the physical world, getting him to repeat moves after seeing them once, finely controlling his own movements, improving his reaction time, and optimising the attacks of others were all tasks the Headmaster had assigned him. Ozpin also had him gradually increase the quantity of data he processed, the amount of devices he controlled, and the speed at which he could activate different features.

Today, however, was different. Today, for combat class, they were on an excursion to Forever Fall, a forest in a constant state of Autumn. The harsh red leaves constantly fluttered through the air, and coated the ground beneath their feet. It was beautiful, serene, and startlingly barren for Jaune's Semblance. Beacon was a thriving hub of interconnected computers, scrolls, cameras, servers, and much more, while out in Forever Fall, it was distractingly… quiet.

"Yes students," Ms. Goodwitch began, "the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked you all to fill a jar with sap from the trees deep within the forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die doing so," she explained, lifting a jar filled with thick magenta sap.

Jaune looked down at the jar in his hands. It was pretty big, hopefully it wouldn't take too long to fill.

"Be careful students," Ms. Goodwitch warned, "The forest is full of the creatures of Grimm. You would be wise to stick close with your team. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Good luck."

"Everyone good to go?" Ruby asked, as the other teams gradually began spreading out through the forest.

"Yep!" Yang answered, "Let's go!"

Jaune was jostled forward as Cardin shoulder checked him.

"Good luck, _buddy_," he sneered, walking away with his team in tow.

"Leave it, Yang," Jaune sighed, as she followed behind. "Just ignore him."

"Are you kidding?" She scowled. "He's being a dick so I might as well go punch it."

Jaune cringed slightly at the mental image. No matter how much he disliked Cardin, he wouldn't wish an angry Yang on him, if just for his future children's sake.

"Don't bother. He's just trying to piss us off. Don't let him win."

"Yeah well, it's working," Yang huffed, but conceded.

"C'mon," he said with a grin, "Let's fill up our jars then we can chill for a while."

Yang grinned back, and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Sounds good to me Jauney. Where to, dear sister?"

Ruby hummed, her eyes squinting as she stroked her chin in mock deep thought, before jutting her hand in a random direction. "That way!" she declared.

"You heard her Blakey!" Yang said enthusiastically, slinging her other arm over Blake's shoulders, "Onwards!"

Ruby giggled as Blake rolled her eyes, sharing a look with Jaune that displayed their mirrored exasperation, before they smiled and followed along with their overly energetic teammates.

* * *

Jaune sneezed again.

"Ugh, this sucks," he whined.

Ruby patted his shoulder in sympathy. "Yeah, allergies are awful," she said, offering a small smile.

"Uh-huh." He sniffed.

"How about you guard us while we fill the jars?" Blake offered.

He nodded. "Yeah." He sniffed again. "I can do that."

This sap really sucked. His nose and throat had clogged up as soon as he'd gotten a whiff of the sugary sap.

He swept his gaze across the forest as the girls went to work, cutting into the soft wood with their weapons, and collecting the free flowing sap in their jars. Blake and Yang soon moved deeper into the forest as the flow of sap from their trees slowed, leaving just him with his partner.

"This stuff is so sticky!" Jaune heard Ruby say, and he turned back to see her stick a sap covered thumb into her mouth.

Her eyes widened and she hummed in delight. "This is _amazing!_" she declared, sticking another finger into the mostly filled jar and lifting it to her mouth.

"Ruby!" Jaune chastised, "You can't _eat_ the sap! We're trying to collect it and you're going to contaminate it!"

Ruby pouted, "But it's so sweet!"

He rolled his eyes. "Ruby, you can't-"

Ruby's eyes widened in shock as she looked at something behind him. "Jaune!"

Jaune spun as fast as he could, his sword coming to bear as he swung at the object flying towards him. His blade struck true, carving through it with minimal resistance-

-And then his face was splattered with sickly sweet sap.

Jaune remained frozen in place, sword outstretched and eyes shut tightly as sap dripped down his chin.

And then he sneezed. Violently.

"Jaune!" Ruby cried, "Are you okay?"

He wiped sap from his eyes with his left hand and flicked it away. Then he became aware of Cardin and his team's jeering laughter.

"Nice reaction there Jauney boy. Really helped yourself out there. It's a shame though, I wasn't aiming for you, I was aiming for Red back there."

For Ruby? Oh Cardin _really_ fucked up. If it were just him, he could deal with it, but involving Ruby? He wasn't going to let that slide.

Jaune grit his teeth, seething rage flowing in his veins as Ruby stepped over to help him.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled at Cardin, anger clear in her tone, "Leave him alone, you jerk!"

"You listen here Cardin-" Jaune sneezed again, his soon to be angry rant interrupted.

Cardin laughed at him. "What kind of Huntsman are you? Barely keeping it together, sniffling like a crying bitch while your little girlfriend protects you. That it Jaune? You into little girls?"

"Oh wow Cardin, picking on a 'little girl'. That make you feel big and strong?" Jaune retorted easily, putting air quotes around 'little girl', "Even if she _is_ a 'little girl', she's still twice the person you'll ever be."

Cardin sneered, no doubt ready to deliver his own counter, when a loud rustling from the forest caught their attention.

The bear-like Grimm, nearly twice as tall as Jaune was, crashed through the trees with a mighty roar, large paws knocking thick branches aside with minimal effort.

"That's a big ursa!" cried a member of Cardin's team, Russel Thrush, before he turned and ran, the other two members following close behind.

The Ursa Major turned its attention to Cardin, and stomped towards him on its hind legs. Cardin raised his mace to strike the Grimm, but it easily batted the large weapon away.

Ruby stepped forward, but Jaune stopped her with an outstretched arm.

"Let me," he said. He saw her nod from the corner of his eye, before stepping back

The ursa knocked Cardin to the ground with a mighty swing, before standing over him and raising a paw.

Jaune leapt forward, sword up and ready to strike. He dashed up behind and past the Grimm, scoring a deep gash along its right leg. It roared, more in annoyance than pain, but stumbled away from Cardin. Jaune stepped between the Grimm and Cardin, before continuing his offense. He stepped forward, stabbing the long blade upward and burying it in the flesh of the ursa's left shoulder.

The Grimm snarled, swiping at him with its right paw as he pulled back his sword. Jaune ducked and dived under the swing, scoring another slash at the right leg as he came up from a roll. The ursa growled, kicking out at him, but he was already out of reach. It spun towards him and charged, bringing down a mighty paw at his head.

Jaune swung up, and the ursa howled as its left foreleg was severed at the joint. Without pause, Jaune jumped, spinning his sword around him and striking high.

The Grimm's howl cut off suddenly, as its head was separated from its body. It landed on the ground with a soft thud, before slowly dissolving to ashes.

The forest was silent, other than Jaune's own harsh breaths.

He looked at Cardin, still laying on the floor with a shocked expression, as ash swelled in air, from the corpse, and from the blood on Jaune's sword.

"I don't care what you do to me," Jaune told him, snarling viciously, "But don't you _ever_ touch Ruby. Don't you _ever_ touch my team. You got that?"

Cardin nodded slowly.

"Good, now get the _fuck_ out of my sight."

Cardin scrambled to his feet, before turning and stumbling in the direction his team had run, never once looking back.

Jaune watched him go, until Ruby slammed into his side, wrapping her arms around him.

"You're really cool Jaune," she whispered.

Jaune's cheeks felt hot as he smiled. Hesitantly, he laid his hand on her back. She hugged him tighter, and he smiled wider.

"Ruby! Jaune!" Yang shouted, running out of the treeline, "Are you guys okay?"

Jaune yanked his arm back in shock, and Ruby leapt away as if burnt.

"We heard fighting," Blake continued.

"W-we're fine," Ruby stammered.

"Y-yeah," he agreed. "There was an ursa, but I got rid of it."

Yang's eyes narrowed as she looked between the pair, before she grinned smugly.

"_Oh?_ Nothing else happened eh?" she questioned.

"N-nothing." Ruby answered, face red.

"Of course, of course," Yang agreed with an eye roll, before slinging an arm over Jaune's shoulders. "So, you dealt with an Ursa by yourself? I'm impressed!" she said enthusiastically, "You've gotten better so quickly! Even some of the guys back at Signal wouldn't go toe to toe with one."

"It was an Ursa Major too!" Ruby added.

Yang's eyes widened as she lifted a brow. "Wow, a Major? Damn Jaune, you're gonna leave us in the dust by the end of the year!" she laughed.

Jaune flushed again. "I-it wasn't _that_ impressive."

Yang grinned. "Would you say it was _bear_-ly impressive?"

Ruby groaned as Yang cackled.

"Yaaaaang," Ruby whined,"Please. You're not funny!"

Yang placed a hand on her chest dramatically. "I totally _am_ funny!" she refuted, looking to Blake for support. "I'm hilarious, aren't I Blakey?"

Blakes sucked air in through gritted teeth, "Funny isn't really… a word I'd use to describe you Yang."

Yang gasped. "My own partner! How could you? Surely Jaune," she said, turning to him, "surely _you _think I'm funny."

"You absolutely are not."

He denied her without remorse.

Yang rolled her head back limply. "Traitors, all of you! I can't believe I've been so completely betrayed by my trusted teammates!"

Ruby giggled, and Jaune couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright," Yang continued with a smile, "Me and Blakey are done; you got your sap yet lovebirds?"

Ruby spluttered in embarrassment.

"Y-yeah," Jaune stammered, "We're done."

"Cool!" Yang continued, unperturbed, "You brought some food along right?"

Jaune nodded. He left it in his bag on the bullhead.

"It's still only like, midday, soooo how about we have a picnic? We've got another three hours to burn."

"That… That sounds nice actually," Blake said.

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered, "Picnic!"

Jaune grinned. "Let's head back then, it's not far."

Yang grinned back. "Take us away Mr. Hackerman!"

* * *

"There's so many people..." Jaune said quietly.

The city of Vale was bustling with activity, people lined every street, going about their business. Flags were hung up between buildings, alternating red, yellow, and green, and balloons of similar colours floated above.

With the Vytal festival mere weeks away, decorations were being strung, and the city was fuller than ever, tourists from all across the region had come to the city to enjoy the festivities.

"That's right!" Ruby giggled softly. "You're not from the city are you Jaune?"

He shook his head, staring out across the crowd. It was all a little overwhelming, especially for his Semblance. The sheer number of people who inevitably all carried scrolls, the office buildings full of computers, the lamps and cars and bullheads… There was so much.

Jaune pulled at his mental filter, gradually reducing the range until his head cleared. He had been working on gradually increasing both the range of his Semblance, and the range of frequencies and devices he kept note of, but in front of this many devices, he couldn't keep up.

"C'mon," Ruby said, nudging his side with her shoulder gently, "there's still a couple hours before we meet up with Spring."

They, team Rainbow, and team Spring had agreed to meet up in Vale. Apparently Weiss wanted to 'learn all the super secrets of our enemies', as Nora had put it.

"And we're meeting with Yang and Blake for lunch, right?"

"Yeah," Ruby affirmed. "Yang dragged Blake out for—" she shuddered "—_clothes shopping_,"

Jaune snorted in amusement. "Poor Blake. We'll have to get her something nice for putting up with Yang."

Ruby giggled. "Yeah. She likes books, right? I saw a bookstore earlier, if you want to check that out? You'll probably know what she likes better than me."

He smiled. "Sounds good to me. Lead the way."

Ruby nodded, and quickly grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the store.

It took everything Jaune had to keep from tripping on his own feet. Her hand was so soft, so warm, and so small in comparison to his own. Jaune blushed, and if the red tinting her ears was any indication, Ruby was too.

They reached the store quickly, and Ruby dragged him inside, Jaune still sporting a look of mild disbelief.

The bell above the door tingled lightly, and a man spoke up from the back room of the store.

"Just a moment!"

The walls of the shop were each lined with shelves, all filled to the brim with dozens and dozens of books.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade," the shop's owner, presumably Tukson, began, stepping out from the back room. He was tall and muscular, with dark hair and thick sideburns, and, Jaune noticed, claws instead of nails. A faunus.

"Looking for something in particular, or just here to browse?" he asked.

"Just browsing, thanks!" Ruby replied.

He nodded. "Just tap the bell at the counter or yell for me if there's anything you need," he offered politely.

"Will do!" Ruby said, before turning to Jaune. "So, got anything in mind?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, I'll have to look around."

Ruby nodded in return. "I think i'll have a look around too."

She began to walk away, only to halt with a yelp as her arm was tugged backwards, courtesy of her and Jaune's still linked hands.

They both let go.

"S-sorry!" Ruby stammered.

"N-no, I should've!-"

They shared an awkward laugh, and turned away from one another.

Jaune turned his attention to browsing the shelves, and after a few minutes, spotted an interesting title.

"The Man with Four Souls," he mumbled. It was the sequel to the book Blake had been reading the night they all met. He pulled it from its place before heading to the counter, only to stop as he spotted another item, 'The Complete Works of X-Ray and Vav'.

Oh, he _had_ to get that. He'd always loved the comic series, so being able to get the entire franchise, at just 750 Lien was _absolutely _worth it.

He walked to the counter, and Ruby walked up beside him as he tapped the little bell.

"Coming!" Tukson said.

"X-Ray and Vav?" Ruby asked excitedly, "I love those comics!"

"Really?" he asked, "I do too! I was actually buying this for me."

"Oh cool, I've got to get a copy too!" she said enthusiastically, patting her pockets, before she stopped, blinked in surprise, and groaned.

"I left all my money back at Beacon," she said dejectedly, looking at the floor.

"A-ah, it's okay!" he comforted. "Um, if you'd like, we could um, read this together?"

She looked up at him, eyes shining, before she looked away again, a blush blooming on her pale skin. "I'd like that," she whispered.

"Cool," he said lamely.

"Is that all you'd like?" Tukson asked politely.

"U-uh yes, that's all thanks."

Tukson nodded. "That'll be a thousand Lien please."

A thousand? "But shouldn't it be twelve hundred?"

Tukson smiled. "A discount," he explained with a tilt of his head, "for being so polite."

"Oh, uh, thanks," Jaune said, handing him the card.

"Enjoy the rest of your date!" the man said, returning to the back room with a laugh as Jaune and Ruby stammered denials.

With red faces, they exited the store, and went to meet up with Yang and Blake for lunch.

* * *

"The Vytal Festival," Weiss gushed, "Oh, this is so wonderful!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss," Nora grinned, "It's kinda weird."

"How could you _not_ smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world. The amount of organisation that goes into an event like this is breathtaking."

"I think you're the only one that views it like that, Weiss," Ren offered.

"Yeah," Yang snorted, "You're the only one who can make something fun like this into something boring."

"Oh, quiet you."

Ruby and Pyrrha giggled.

"So, remind me of why we're spending our saturday out at the docks?" Blake requested.

"Weiss wanted to scope out our enemies!" Nora stage whispered.

"You can't prove that," Weiss scoffed.

"Lies and slander," Jaune tacked on with a grin.

Weiss nodded in agreement, a small, amused smile gracing her lips.

"Woah," Ruby muttered, looking down the street at a store with a shattered window, police tape wrapping around the surrounding area.

The group of eight quickly made their way over.

"What happened here?" Ruby asked the smartly dressed officer.

"Robbery," he answered. "Second to be hit in a week. It's turnin' into a jungle out here, I tell you."

"That's terrible," Pyrrha said quietly.

"They left all the money again!" another officer shouted from inside, "It don't make no sense. What could you possibly need all that Dust for?"

"No idea," his partner answered. "You uh, you thinkin' the White Fang?"

"I'm _thinkin'_, that we don't get paid enough."

"Too right," he responded, following his partner back into the store.

"Hmph. The White Fang," Weiss commented, crossing her arms and pointing her nose up, "What an awful bunch of degenerates."

Blake bristled. "What's _your_ problem?" she asked angrily.

"_My_ problem. I don't exactly care for the criminally insane," Weiss retorted hotly.

"They're people too, you know, not a bunch of psychopaths. And anyway, that doesn't exactly explain why they'd rob a dust store in the middle of downtown Vale."

"Blake has a point," Ruby added, "Maybe it was that Torchwick guy I ran into a couple of months ago?"

"That doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are _scum_," Weiss growled. "Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

"Yeah well," Jaune interjected, "Maybe if their entire species wasn't abused and exploited, they wouldn't have an issue in the first place."

Weiss would certainly be knowledgeable there, and his glare told her as much.

"Hey! Get down from there you no-good stowaway!" a loud voice interrupted.

"I take offense to that! A _no-good_ stowaway would've been caught!" a blond faunus boy shouted back, hanging upside-down from a lamppost with a golden tail as he ate a banana. "I'm a _great _stowaway!"

He tossed the peel into the man's face, and jumped down acrobatically, before taking off along the dock. He raced up the stairs and past their group, giving Blake a quick wink as he ran by.

"Did- Did he just wink at you?" Yang asked, a grin growing. "He just winked at you!"

"W-what?" Blake stammered.

Yang grinned wider, darting behind her and placing her hand on Blake's back, before pushing her forward in the direction the monkey faunus had run.

"After the potential love interest!" Yang declared.

Ruby giggled, and grabbed Jaune's hand again, tugging him along as she followed after a very enthusiastic Yang and a _very _unenthusiastic Blake.

"C'mon Jaune, let's go!" she called.

They ran down the street, Blake eventually realising that there was no stopping Yang, and resigned herself to just going with the flow. The team rounded a corner, only to stumble to a halt as Yang crashed into…

What the _fuck _was _that_? Jaune had never seen anything like it. A pulsing mass of electronics, shifting and moving in ways he'd never seen.

"Sal-u-tations!"

* * *

**Hello all!**

**Sorry for the slight delay. With classes on holidays, I've just ended up with more hours for work, so I've had less time to write. Consequence of that, this chapter hasn't been edited yet, as both my betas are asleep! So ****apologies**** if there are any mistakes, it'll all be fixed up when I release the chapter next week!**

**So, first time skip! Jaune is gradually turning into the badass we all know he's capable of being! But what do you guys think? Do you like how it's been done? Do you want less or more detail from the skipped sections? Oh, and let me know if you have any ideas for what he should be naming his weapon! He should be getting it soon, and to be honest, I have no idea what to call it!**

**That's all for this week, so thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter H3ctic4328 for updates, teasers, and other stuff! I'm still working on being more active there, so let me know what you'd like to see. Alternatively, come say hi on Discord! I'm active pretty much every day over at discord. gg/thehoard**

**See you next chapter!  
Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	7. Chapter 7

Jaune believed that he was becoming used to his Semblance. While initially it had taken him concerted effort to do even the simplest tasks, he could now do a great deal more with a minimal amount of concentration. He had become used to the shining spires of signals and tech that filled Beacon and Vale, but never before had he seen something like this.

The girl(?) shone, a compact mass of thousands of pieces of ultra-high level technology, with some kind of… bubble surrounding her, exerting a pull on her pieces and everything around.

He attempted to look at the internal systems of the creation… but _it _pushed _back_.

The girl's eyes snapped to him, narrowing in suspicion. He prodded again, and she shifted on the ground slightly as his mental intrusion was blocked.

He paused, and this time, _she_ prodded at _him_. It was an incredibly strange sensation, he could feel her pressing against his influence, and furrowing his eyebrows, he pushed her away.

The girl's eyes opened in surprise.

Jaune was probably mirroring her expression.

He then tried something different, instead of forcefully pushing, he brushed against her influence, extending a virtual hand of communication.

After a moment's hesitation, she took it.

And then he was a part of the system.

Instantly, they were one, her thoughts, feelings, memories, all laid bare, and he knew the same was true of him. He knew of her strength, of her compassion, of her loneliness, of her fear. He knew everything of her and she knew everything of him. They knew all of themselves.

She, _Penny_, was the Polendina Project, they realised. The first ever sentient machine, a merging of life and metal, with an aura to call Her own. That is what had blocked Him before: an aura contained in a body made of steel and wire and electronics was inevitably attuned to it, and gave Her limited control over it.

Jaune pulled away, not enough to sever the connection, but enough that he was once more _Jaune_ and no longer _Them_.

_Sorry_, he said but didn't say, thought but didn't think. _I intruded there,_ he continued.

_It's okay_, she returned, and he didn't quite hear it, and didn't quite think it, but understood all the same. _Neither of us knew it would happen_.

_Will you turn me in?_ he asked. She now knew that he'd broken into HighThought, and he now knew that he hadn't made off quite as undetected as he'd thought.

_No,_ she answered, _I know you will use it for the good of us all_._ Will you… tell them what I am?_ she asked.

_What you are?_ he questioned, _I'll leave it up to you to tell them _who_ you are. _

_I'm not a real girl, _she denied.

_Penny, you think, you feel, you love, you hurt. Your skin may be synthetic instead of flesh, but you are just as real as I am. I know the loneliness you've felt, but trust in me when I say that these girls and I will be the friends you've been craving._

There was a pause.

_Thank you, Jaune. I think I believe you. This means a lot to me, _she replied gently.

_I know. We should probably talk to them now, shouldn't we?_

There was a faint buzz of amusement, tickling against his senses.

_We should,_ she agreed.

"Are you… okay?" Yang asked after a moment. The girl had given a bright greeting and a brighter smile, but was still laying on the floor.

She seemed to realise her position, and quickly stood. "I'm fine, thank you. Are you alright? You were running very fast," she asked with concern.

"Uh, no, we're fine. We really should have been watching where we're going. Sorry for running into you like that… uh?"

"Penny. And you are?"

"I'm Jaune," he offered, giving the girl a small, knowing grin. "This is Ruby, Yang, and Blake." He pointed to them in turn.

"It is very nice to meet you all!"

Jaune laughed. "And you as well. Are you in Vale for the festival?"

Penny tilted her head. "Partly. I'm here to compete in the Tournament, but I've been given some time off to explore! I am enjoying the sights very much."

"You're going to compete in the Tournament too?" Ruby asked.

"Yes!" she answered, giving a short salute and small grin. "I am com-bat ready!"

Ruby giggled. "Are you planning to win?"

Penny hummed thoughtfully. "I'll try to, but I won't be disappointed if I don't. What I really want is to meet new people and try to make some friends!"

Ruby's brow furrowed. "Do you not have any friends? Surely you're friends with your team, right?"

Penny's lips were pulled into a thin line. "In Atlas, my father is a rather important man," she admitted, "To my team, I think I'm more of an assignment than a person."

"That settles it," Ruby declared with a small smile. "I'll be your friend Penny."

"Me too," Jaune added.

Penny's eyes widened, before she smiled wide. "Oh, this is sen-sational! I'm sure we will have lots of fun!"

"And us too!" Yang said, "Don't mind Ms. Grumpy Cat here, she's just upset because her new crush ran away."

Blake started at the accusation. "Wha- He is not my crush!"

"He winked at you," Yang pointed out.

"Oh?" Penny asked mischievously, "Was he cute?"

"He totally was, wasn't he Blakey? I bet you didn't mind that his shirt was open," Yang said, waggling her eyebrows.

"Oh my," Penny giggled, "You appear to be going a little red there Blake."

Yang wrapped her arm around Penny's shoulders as she snickered. "You and I are get along great Big-P,"

"My first nickname!" Penny whispered in delight.

"The constraints of this language mean that I cannot adequately express my hatred of the both of you," Blake said.

They all laughed.

Penny was already fitting in well, and he couldn't be happier for her.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the festivities. They walked around town, stopping at different stores and joking around with one another, frequently making fun of Blake about that faunus boy they never ended up finding.

Penny had to leave around midday, but promised to join them again tomorrow, where they planned to introduce her to team Spring. After she had gone, they bought lunch, and Yang laughed at Ruby as she nearly cried over dropping her ice-cream. Jaune was quick to comfort her, and offered his to her, but she insisted they share. As cool as the ice-cream was, it wasn't enough to dampen the heat in his cheeks.

After an uneventful evening, and a pleasantly late wake-up, they rejoined team Spring and ventured back into Vale Proper, Weiss and Blake steadyfastly ignoring one another.

Things had been going well, they told the other team about Penny, and how she would be joining them after lunch. The story of her difficulties making friends obviously struck a chord with Pyrrha and Weiss, who Jaune figured had been in similar circumstances.

The day was going well, until they came across another shattered store front.

Weiss sneered. "I bet it's that White Fang again."

Blake bristled. "Is that your default reasoning? 'A faunus did it'? You should be careful Wiess, your true colours are showing."

"The White Fang only exists because of humanity's intolerance," Jaune added. "We bullied and belittled until they fought back."

"Oh right, the poor faunus!" Weiss snarled. "That part is a little tougher to see from my perspective."

Blake glared. "Yes, I'm sure they kept the 'faunus scum' away from the precious little rich girl."

"Do you have _any_ idea what the White Fang has put me through?" Weiss asked, "For _years_, since I was a _child_, I've watched as friends and family have been kidnapped and _killed_ by them. Do you have any idea what it's like to know as a _child_ that there's a target on your back? That I might be kidnapped and my head be returned to my father's doorstep in a box? _All_ those faunus know is to lie, rob, and _kill_."

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake shouted in rage.

Uh oh.

Blake's eyes widened as she realised what she revealed. She turned, and ran.

"Blake!" Ruby called after her rapidly disappearing figure, "Wait, please!"

Ruby started to follow, Jaune and Yang close behind, but not before Yang sent a heated glare at a surprised Weiss.

"That lying, fauna-"

"Weiss!" Pyrrha admonished, "Stop it! You've already caused enough damage."

"Wha- Pyrrha, she's _one of them_." Weiss argued.

"_Were_," Nora corrects coldly, "Past tense Weiss. Maybe you should remember you're not the only one that's suffered."

"Come on Pyrrha," Ren said, "Let's help team Rainbow."

Ren and Nora turned away and began jogging in the direction the other team had run.

Pyrrha watched Weiss, disappointment filling her features, before she too turned to leave.

"Pyrrha wait! I'm sorry!" Weiss pleaded.

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to."

* * *

"Blake!" Ruby shouted, "Blaaake!"

"Where are you!" Yang yelled.

"Anything, Jaune?" Ruby pleaded.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, not yet. It's hard to focus with how much stuff there is in Vale."

Ruby gave a weak smile. "It's okay Jaune. Please, keep trying."

"I will."

"Ruby? Jaune? Yang?" Penny asked, appearing suddenly, causing all three to jump.

"Geez Big-P, you scared the crap out of me," Yang told her.

"I'm sorry Yang. What are you doing out here? I thought we were going to meet at the central plaza. And where is Blake? Is she okay?" Penny asked.

"She… ran away," Ruby admitted, "She accidentally said something and it turns out she's not who we thought she was, so she ran."

"Are you mad at her?" Penny asked.

"No!" Ruby denied, "I'm just… confused. And worried. She ran before we could even ask her about it."

"I don't have many friends," Penny admitted, "But if I did, I'd want them to talk to me."

Ruby sighed. "Me too Penny. Me too."

* * *

"Finally, she speaks!" Sun declared.

Sitting across from him on the other side of the table was a faunus girl, and she was _gorgeous_. Probably the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. When he'd first seen her, it was all he could do to keep running.

And then he'd winked at her! Oum, what was he thinking? Who winked at people? He didn't! He'd never winked at a girl before, but this girl was just so damn beautiful he couldn't put it into words.

One look into her stunning golden eyes and he'd lost all thought.

After he'd escaped the police (that had chased him for far longer than expected), he'd spent the rest of the day searching for her. Call him desperate, but he _had_ to get another look at her, a chance to talk to her.

Saturday had not borne fruit, so he tried again on Sunday, and this time, _she_ had found _him_. And she was _scared_. He'd asked for her name and what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell him.

"Can we… talk somewhere?" she'd asked instead.

He'd agreed, taking her to a café he'd been told was faunus friendly, and had taken them to the roof. He'd ordered tea, and waited. She sat silently, eyes downcast in deep thought.

The tea arrived, and she served herself some (black, two sugars), and he did the same.

Unable to take the silence, he introduced himself. "I'm Sun, by the way."

"Blake," she returned quietly.

Which brought them back to now, his exclamation of surprise earned him a mild look of ire, but nothing more.

He sipped from his tea, holding the porcelain cup up to his mouth with his tail.

Blake, across from him, took a sip from her own tea, and sighed.

"Sun," she began, "Are you familiar with the White Fang?"

"The White Fang? I don't think there's a faunus on the _planet_ that doesn't know about those creeps. With their stupid 'Holier-than-thou' attitude while all they do is make it worse for the rest of us. They're a bunch of fanatics."

Blake sipped her tea calmly. "I was a member of the White Fang."

Sun choked on his tea, before coughing violently. "_You_ were a member of the White Fang?" he asked in disbelief.

She nodded in affirmation. "I was for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it."

She trailed off, and he nodded his head to urge her to continue.

"In the ashes of war, the White Fang was supposed to be a symbol. The picture of unity between humans and faunus. However, it quickly became apparent that our supposed equality was nothing but an empty promise. Bitter from the war, humanity saw us not only as lesser beings, but as the cause of death, pain, and loss. And so the White Fang rose up as the voice of the faunus, shouting 'We are people too'."

She lowered her tea, but her eyes remained downcast. "And I was there, at the front of every rally, I took part in every boycott, and I truly believed we were making a difference. In reality, I was just a youthful optimist."

Finally, she looked up, but not at him. She looked out across the city thoughtfully.

"Five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new one, with new, violent, tactics. Suddenly we went from peaceful protests searching for faunus sympathisers to organised attacks on stores that refused to serve us, on freighters that abused faunus labour, and on human supremacy groups."

She laughed, but it was hollow, full of melancholy.

"The worst part was that it was actually _working_. Humans wouldn't treat us so badly anymore, but I realised that it wasn't because they respected us, it was because they were _afraid_ of us."

Blake turned to him, her golden irises staring into his soul.

"So I left. I turned my back on them and vowed that I would spend my life earning their respect as a Huntress. And here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow."

She looked up, shifting her eyes slightly and moving the bow around.

Sun let out a long, slow breath. "So… Have you told your team any of this?"

Blake looks away, shame flooding her face.

"Hoo boy, alrighty then. Did your team really not realise that you're a faunus?" he asked. "No offense, but it's not all that good of a disguise."

Blake groaned, her shoulders slumping in what looked like disappointment. "No, no, they know. I… I told them a while ago, but one of them, Jaune, had already figured it out." A small smirk spread on her lips. "I told them after he made a fool out of a racist who was bullying another faunus girl."

Sun grinned slightly. "Really? What he do? If it impressed you, it must have really been something."

The smirk deepened. "Threatened to mail his browser history to our combat instructor."

Sun snorted in disbelief, before devolving into a loud laugh. "Holy _shit_. I _so_ wanna meet this guy!" he laughed.

After giving him a minute to collect himself, Blake continued.

"Yeah," she said with a soft smile, "It was really cool. He's, he's really something, and I'm honestly glad I was able to be his friend."

"You say that like you can't be anymore," Sun pointed out.

"I _can't_. I'm a criminal, I _lied_ to the-"

"You said he already knew you were a faunus, right?" he interrupted.

Blake started for a moment. "Y-yeah. He told me he knew the first time he saw me."

"And he kept it hidden the whole time? I don't know about you, but it seems pretty obvious to me that this Jaune guy was either respecting your privacy, really didn't care if you were a faunus or not, or both!" Sun argued. "How did the other two react?"

"Um, they were really cool about it. They were a little surprised, but then things went back to normal," Blake answered.

"Okay, so let me get this straight," he began, "One of your teammates knew you were a faunus from the beginning, and kept it a secret for you, and the other two never so much looked at you differently after finding out about you, and when your past was revealed, instead of explaining it to them, you ran away and started telling your life story to a guy you met _once_."

Blake's fists clenched as she looked down at her lap in shame.

"Do you… Do you really think so poorly of your team?" he asked.

"No!" she denied, "No, I think they're all incredible-"

"But you didn't even _try_, Blake," Sun interrupted.

"I know!" she shouted, looking up at him again, tears gathering in her eyes, "I know! I fucked up, okay?! I know…"

"Hey," he said gently, taking her hand and smiling kindly, "Trust me, if you go back to them right now, and you tell them what you told me, I guarantee you that they'll take you back with open arms."

Blake stared at him with wide eyes, her mouth open slightly in shock. She stared at him, as a tear ran down her cheek. She sniffed, and wiped it away angrily.

"I… Thank you, Sun," she said sincerely.

He smiled at her again, and gave her a minute to recollect herself, before posing a question. "So, what's the plan now?"

"I still don't think it's the White Fang that's committing all these robberies. It doesn't make sense that they would need all this Dust," Blake explained.

"Well, if you don't think it's them, why don't you go to where they'd most likely be and… not find them there?" Sun asked awkwardly.

"The problem is that I have no idea where that would be," Blake answered.

"I think I might though," Sun said, "I heard a couple of the guys on the ship I came in on talking about a _huge_ shipment of dust coming in. A massive Schnee freighter."

Blake rested a hand on her chin, nodding slowly. "I think I know what the plan is then."

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah. We're going to the Docks."

* * *

**Hello all!**

**Sorry for the day long delay, and the shorter than normal chapter, work has been kicking my ass this week, but my schedule goes back to normal after this, so expect the story to reflect that!**

**Like last week, this is unedited, so I apologise if there are any errors, however, last chapter has been updated to an edited version.**

**So this chapter simultaneously mirrors and differs from canon in many ways, and it was certainly interesting to write! What did you guys think of my rendition of Penny? I'd love to hear some feedback. Oh, and I still need a name for Jaune's weapon! I honestly have no idea what to call it lmao.**

**That's all for this week, so thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter H3ctic4328 for updates, teasers, and other stuff! If you want early notice on delays, new chapters, etc. it's the best place to be! Alternatively, come say hi on Discord! I'm active pretty much every day over at discord. gg/thehoard**

**See you next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

"Did I miss anything?" Sun asked, landing quietly on the shipping container beside a prone Blake.

Blake looked back over her shoulder at him. "No," she answered. "They offloaded some crates, but nothing has happened since then."

"Cool." He offered her one of the many apples he had procured. "I stole you some food!"

Blake looked at him questioningly. "Do you… always break the law without a second thought?"

"Weren't you like, part of a cult?" he countered.

She glared at him, before rolling her eyes slightly and tilting her head in concession.

The wind picked up suddenly, and the dull whine of bullhead engines filled the air. A moment later, its spotlight came into view, tracing the ground in back and forth sweeps as it scanned the area for a suitable landing location.

A space between containers lit up with the illumination of the powerful spotlight, and the bullhead carefully moved over top of it, before slowly setting down onto the ground, opening its rear hatch, and extending a ramp.

"Oh no," Blake muttered, as faunus after faunus stepped out of the vehicle and into the light, the signature uniform and Grimm-like mask of the White Fang visible on every member.

"Is that them?" Sun asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"Yes. That's them," Blake admitted.

"You… You really didn't think it was them, did you?" he asked.

"Grab those tow cables!" one member of the White Fang shouted in the distance.

"No," Blake answered, "I think deep down, I knew. I don't- I just wish I was wrong."

"Hey!" shouted a rather obnoxious voice. "What's the holdup?" A man in a crisp white suit with styled orange hair under a black bowler hat stepped down the ramp, waving a pale cane around in his right hand. Roman Torchwick, renowned thief and self-proclaimed stylish gentleman. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous group of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

"This isn't right," Blake declared, narrowing her eyes. "The White Fang would _never _work with a human, especially not one like _him_."

Blake stood, suddenly and silently, and drew her weapon with the quiet hiss of metal on leather before stepping forward to the edge of the container.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sun asked in alarm.

She ignored him and took a step to drop from the container to the ground silently. She moved, darting between shadows and corners, making her way to the group of White Fang as they steadily loaded crates from their containers to the ship.

"No, you idiot!" Roman barked at one of the faunus. "This isn't a leash!"

Roman turned, exposing his back to Blake. She took the opportunity, darting forward and slipping the blade of the katana around his neck, dangerously close.

"Oh, you've gotta be fucking _kiddi—_"

"Nobody move!" Blake shouted, cutting Roman off.

"Woah, take it easy there, little lady," Roman said, his casual tone belying his precarious position of a blade to his throat. "You _really_ don't wanna be playing hero here."

The White Fang were slow to respond, but they eventually drew and aimed their weapons at Blake, gradually closing in around her and her hostage.

Blake lifted her hand from Roman's shoulder to the bow in her hair, deftly untying it and letting it flutter to the ground to expose her faunus heritage.

"Brothers of the White Fang!" Blake shouted. "Why are you aiding this scum?!"

"Oh kid, didn't you get the memo?" Roman asked, voice smug.

"What are you talking about?"

"The White Fang and I have come together for a joint business venture."

"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation," Blake threatened.

"Oh," Roman gloated with a smirk, "I wouldn't call it a _little_ operation."

The telltale whine of bullhead engines reverberated through the docks, and a pair of the vehicles appeared shortly after as they came to a stop above them, spotlights blaring down on them.

Blake yelped in surprise as the ground beneath her feet exploded.

* * *

The echoing boom of an explosion broke through the quiet of the downtown street.

Penny, Ruby, and Jaune turned in tandem towards the direction of the noise and watched as smoke crawled into the sky from the docks.

"Oh no," Ruby muttered.

"Oh no," Jaune echoed.

* * *

Blake landed with a roll, bleeding most of her downward speed into forward momentum to gain distance from her attacker. She turned, only to find Roman striding confidently towards her, twirling his cane gracefully.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty-" Roman's taunt was efficiently cut off by the banana peel that slapped him in the face. He growled, flicking it aside to find the perpetrator.

Sun leapt at Roman, a red and gold bo staff arcing down towards the criminal's head.

Roman dodged artfully and sent a forward kick towards Sun's shin. It connected, and Sun tipped forward to accommodate the sudden backwards momentum. Roman capitalised, flicking the cane ahead with surprising speed to strike Sun in the cheek.

Sun spun with the blow, bringing the staff around in a vicious sweep, however, it was deflected upwards by Roman's cane, which he had spun in a reverse arc. Sun moved with the motion, bringing the staff's other end around to knock Roman's cane up, and continued with a forward jab at the man's midsection.

Roman jumped away from the strike with ease.

"Leave her alone," Sun growled.

From the low-hovering bullheads, several White Fang members jumped, landing quickly and readying their weapons, each pointed at Sun.

Roman sneered. "You're not really the brightest banana of the bunch, are ya kid?"

The White Fang charged at Sun, and Blake reentered the fray with a swing from Gambol Shroud aimed at Roman's head.

Sun disarmed the sword-wielding faunus with a strike at his hand before knocking the staff cautiously against the side of his head. He went down and didn't get back up. He had to be careful with the force behind his blows; these guys didn't have aura, and they were clearly untrained.

Roman dodged the swing of Gambol Shroud easily and retaliated with a flick of his cane. Blake's body flickered, and the cane passed clear through the shadow copy without resistance, as the real version jumped backward.

She dashed forward again, this time with a low, sweeping kick. Roman jumped it and brought his cane down at her head; she flickered again as her Semblance activated and she sidestepped the attack, allowing the shimmering clone to take the blow as she spun to deliver another attack.

Roman blocked and jabbed with his off-hand.

Blake grunted as the attack struck, but continued her assault. She spun and brought her sword around from her right. Roman deflected upward and sent a boot at her chest. She dodged, barely,, and jumped for a high kick.

Blake's form flickered, and Roman's strike passed through her airborne figure as she flipped away. She landed deftly and struck forward with a stab. Roman flicked it aside with ease, laughing mockingly.

Blake growled, jumping back to avoid the counter-attack. With the press of a button, Gambol Shroud folded, and the ribbon fluttered free as the weapon transformed into its kusarigama configuration.

Roman jumped back with a gasp of surprise as the bladed head of the weapon carved a deadly arc through the air, its range drastically increased. Blake twirled, the weapon spinning with her on the taut ribbon, gaining speed and strength with each rotation as she gradually stepped closer to him.

With a carefully aimed swing, he knocked the bladed end down towards the ground as it spun past him, but Blake kept it controlled and used the new downward motion to direct it upwards at the back of the swing, up and over her head. With a shout of exertion, she brought it down with incredible force.

The crack was audible as Gambol Shroud buried itself in the cement of the dock's floor, missing the intended target as, once again, he dodged. For a thief, he had some incredible training and seemingly endless finesse.

Blake flicked her wrist to free her weapon from the ground, but it was too late. Roman's foot slammed into her midsection and she was sent flying backwards, a grunt of pain escaping her lips as her weapon followed her weakly.

Sun, having cleanly dispatched the White Fang, jumped over Blake and kicked at Roman. He reacted admirably, but was too slow to do more than roll with the blow.

The staff Sun carried split down the middle into two pairs of nunchucks. What they lacked in strength of blows, they made up for in sheer quantity. Sun pushed Roman back with a flurry of strikes. Roman was still holding his own, weaving, parrying, and blocking the faunus' assault.

Roman parried aggressively, knocking one of Sun's arms wide and jabbing his cane forward as he turned side-on to avoid the other nunchuck. Sun staggered, and Roman went on the offence.

Or, he tried to, at least, only to find that the staff-turned-nunchucks were actually made of _shotguns_. The first blast impacted Roman's aura, though he was able to flick away the second with his cane. Now he was truly on the defensive, as with each rapid turn, the faunus boy flicked the small lever of the weapon, chambering a new shot each and every time to barrage Roman with buckshot.

He searched desperately for an opening, doing everything he could to block and deflect the oncoming blasts.

He grunted in pain as the head of Gambol Shroud impacted with his forehead, flicked forward with an audible _thwip_. He was sent to the ground, landing poorly on his back and left open to attack, though the faunus pair seemed to have no intention of following through.

A mistake.

He lifted his cane and took aim, before firing an explosive round at the shipping container suspended above the pair's heads.

"Blake!" Sun warned as he jumped away.

She looked up and gasped, before diving forward desperately.

"I told you that you shouldn't have played hero," Roman growled, his cane pointed at her head, ready to fire.

It was the bark of a high powered rifle that interrupted him.

"Son-of-a-_bitch!_" he shouted as a large round struck his hand. It was only through his training, and a not insignificant degree of luck, that he managed to keep hold of his weapon.

Ruby cycled the bolt of Crescent Rose, and the still-smoking casing clattered to the cement of the roof she was perched upon.

Roman suppressed a snarl and waved cheerily in Ruby's direction. "Well hello, Red," he greeted. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Penny looked forward over the edge of the building. "Who is that man?" she asked.

Ruby looked away from Roman to her friend. "No, Penny, stay back!" she warned.

Roman capitalised on her distraction, and fired another round from his cane.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted in warning. He leant forward and snatched a handful of her hood, yanking her back with all of his weight.

The explosive streaked over their heads as they fell, and detonated with a bright flash and loud pop.

Penny stepped forward, returning to the edge of the roof.

"Penny, wait! Stop!" Ruby shouted.

"Don't worry, Ruby," Penny assured, "I am com-bat ready!"

Jaune knew what was coming next.

A panel on Penny's backpack slid open, and out floated a short, folded blade. It opened to reveal a thick, straight-backed sword with an inner curve along the blade. And then it split, and _one_ became _ten_.

After two steps, she leapt, the ground beneath her feet cracking under the force of an aura enhanced jump. She landed gracefully, knocking aside White Fang members with the backs of the blades. They circled her, floating in an ominous silence as she smiled politely at the stunned faunus.

Jaune reached out and connected to her mind as he had before. He watched from the roof, using both his human eyes, and the many cameras in the surrounding area, feeding the android girl information and strategy as she flowed between targets like water in a river.

Penny stepped forward, thrusting an arm out, and the swords flowed around her, striking against the nearby White Fang members. The floating blades returned to her, and she gathered them into a spinning disk, which she sent at an approaching collection of enemy forces.

Jaune watched, carefully guiding each blade so that the flat back edge would strike the White Fang members, likely preserving their lives in the process.

Overhead, a trio of bullheads came into view over the city skyline, and after a moment, two of them opened fire at Penny.

Once more, Jaune guided Penny, using the intrinsic knowledge of how the weapons functioned he had gained from their brief mental merging. Shot after shot pinged off Penny's blades as she spun them in front of her as a pseudo-shield, Jaune's watchful eye and subtle guidance enough to ensure that not a single round struck its intended location.

Two more blades emerged from Penny's back and flew away from her quickly, before sinking into the brickwork of a warehouse some distance behind her. She jumped, and the thin wire tethers dragged her back to the embedded weapons at high speed, the floating circle of swords following closely after.

Penny pulled them closely together and spun them. Between them, a bubble of green plasma grew, emerging from the high-strength electrical currents that jumped between the points of each blade like tiny bolts of lightning.

Penny thrust her arms forward, and green streaks of powerful plasma struck the oncoming bullheads, cutting through their minimal armour as though it didn't even exist. A moment later, the two vehicles that had fired on her split, completely cut through, and White Fang soldiers fell through the now open air.

It wasn't too long of a fall, Jaune knew. It would hurt, and cause numerous injuries, but the probability of fatalities was very low.

The bisected remains of the vehicles sailed overhead, exposed cuts still glowing and smoking, before they fell into the ocean behind Jaune and Ruby.

Ruby watched in awe, while Penny turned back to the last airborne bullhead.

It had gone low and attached a shipping container of dust to its underside, and was now attempting to make away with it.

Penny thrust her arms forward again, and her swords raced forward and embedded themselves in the vehicles starboard side. Penny started walking backwards, dragging the protesting vehicle with her.

A moment later, a number of things happened. The first, Jaune checked the interior of the bullhead through the onboard cameras, and found only the pilot and co-pilot onboard. The second, Penny pulled with all her might. The third, Jaune took control and redirected the engines inline with Penny's pull. The fourth and final thing that happened was Jaune triggering the ejection seats of the two pilots, sending them safely out of the way of their now crashing ship.

And crash it did.

With a spectacular flash and deafening boom, the bullhead's engine ignited the fractured container full of Dust, and it vanished in a fireball that made Jaune wince from the heat, even well over a hundred metres away.

"Jaune!" Ruby called, pointing at a retreating bullhead, "He's getting away!"

They were far, but he could still feel it, if barely. He just had to _reach_ and-

* * *

Roman looked away from the blinding fireball as the final bullhead made its escape.

With jittery fingers, he pulled a cigar from a pocket on the inside of his jacket and placed it in his mouth. He then drew his lighter and flicked it open, ignoring the noises of complaint coming from the seated faunus.

The dumb fucking animals could bitch as much as they wanted about the smoke, _they_ weren't the ones who'd be getting a cap in their ass, despite the mission's failure a result of _their_ ineptitude.

"Quiet," he barked around the cigar, as he lit it and took a long drag.

The smoke filled his lungs, soothing his frayed nerves, both with the calming effect of the nicotine, and the familiarity of the action.

He sighed deeply, smoke billowing out from between his lips. He was _not_ looking forward to what followed.

And then the cabin flooded with darkness. A deafening silence permeated the cabin as _everything_ turned off simultaneously.

His stomach dropped, and the pounding of his heart deafened his ears as they plummeted through the air.

"Son of a _bi-_"

* * *

The bullhead hit the water, and a second later, the loud splash reached their ears.

Jaune dropped his outstretched hand, and as he took a step, he stumbled.

"Jaune!" Ruby cried in alarm, catching him before he could fall, nearly toppling the both of them. "Are you okay?"

"Ugh," he grunted, "Yeah. That-uh, that took a lot more out of me than I thought."

Not to self, working at range is a _bitch_ when there's no trail of devices to connect back to him.

Ruby helped him down from the roof and supported him as they made their way over to where Blake and that faunus boy they'd seen yesterday were sitting. The blare of sirens echoed through the streets as the police started to arrive.

Blake's eyes landed on Jaune and Ruby, and she jumped to her feet and rushed over.

"Jaune! Ruby! Are you okay? What happened?" Blake asked with concern, looking over the two of them.

"Am _I_ okay?" Jaune asked. "Blake, what about _you_? You just disappeared!"

She ignored him in favour of continuing to look for injuries.

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Yes Blake, I'm fine. I just exhausted myself with my Semblance."

"Good, good," she declared, nodding resolutely, before slipping Jaune's other arm over her shoulders and helping Ruby in moving him towards where she had been sitting.

Jaune groaned as they lowered him down onto the milk crate, watching Blake with concern of his own.

"Seriously Blake, are you okay? We've been looking for you all day, and when we find you, you're fighting for your _life_."

"We were so worried!" Ruby cried.

"I-I…" Blake bowed, bending nearly a full ninety degrees at the hips. "I'm sorry," she apologised. "I am so, so, so, so, so sorry." Her voice shook as she spoke. She sounded on the verge of tears. "I-I should have explained, but I was so scared and I just ran and that wasn't fair to you and-"

Ruby enveloped her in a hug.

"I'm just glad you're safe," she whispered.

Jaune pushed himself to his feet unsteadily and joined Ruby in hugging their teammate.

Blake sniffed, and they held her as she cried quietly.

"You're gonna be okay, Blake," Jaune told her.

She gave a wet laugh. "Yeah, I think I will be."

The screech of rubber on road interrupted them as a motorcycle skidded to a stop. The rider hopped off with startling haste. Gloved hands rapidly unlatched the helmet and tugged it off, before carelessly dropping it to the floor.

"Blake!" Yang cried with concern, bolting over to the trio.

Ruby and Jaune had the forethought to step away, and Blake winced in resignation a moment before Yang crashed into her in a violent hug. A moment later, Yang placed her hands on Blake's shoulders and pushed her away to look over her.

"Are you okay!?" She was nearly shouting with worry. "Are you hurt? You look okay, but what happened!? I heard the explosions from the other side of the district and Ruby said you were in trouble!"

Blake sighed deeply and pulled Yang back into the hug. "I'm okay," she assured. "I'm sorry."

"I'm just glad you're safe," Yang whispered into her hair.

Blake laughed. "Ruby said the same."

"Yeah well, she learnt from the best."

Blake giggled.

"Blake," Ruby interrupted softly, "I think you should explain what you said today."

Blake's expression became downturned. "Yeah, okay, I can do that."

She then told them of her past in the White Fang, how she wanted the world to change, but couldn't stand the violence the Fang had turned to for results. After the explanation, she detailed what had happened to her over the day. Running from them, finding Sun, explaining her past to him, and him pushing her to tell them, going to the docks and finding the White Fang, along with Roman Torchwick, up until Ruby and Jaune had arrived.

Yang's head flicked to Sun. "You."

Sun sprang to his feet, and stood at attention. "Yes ma'am?" he answered timidly.

"You helped Blake? You told her to come back to us?"

"Yes ma'am," he confirmed.

Sun yelped as Yang pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him into the air in a crushing hug.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sun wheezed as she placed him back on his feet.

Yang stepped back and placed her hands on her hips with a huff, before she blinked and offered a hand to the faunus boy.

"I'm Yang, by the way. Sorry, probably should have started with that."

"You're fine." Sun shook her hand. "I'm Sun."

"Hey!" shouted a voice. They turned and found the source to be a police officer jogging towards them. "What are you kids doing out here? Were you a part of this?"

"No sir," Jaune answered as he took a step forward and fished his wallet from his pocket to present his Beacon Student ID. "We're from Beacon. The White Fang tried to rob a shipment of Dust that was just freighted in by the SDC so we stepped in to stop it."

He looked between them sceptically. "All of you are Beacon students?"

"Except him." Jaune pointed at Sun. "He's a transfer from Shade, for the tournament."

The officer looked at Sun. "You got ID on you?"

"Yes sir," Sun said, then he drew his own Student ID to show the man.

He nodded his head in satisfaction after a moment of observing the card. "Alright, I'm gonna need you to stay right here so we can collect you all for statements. Got it?"

"Officer, wait!" Jaune said as the man turned to leave.

"What is it, kid?"

"A bullhead went down in the inlet about three hundred metres that way," Jaune pointed in the direction it had fallen, "Roman Torchwick was onboard."

The policeman's eyes widened in surprise, before he spun and began making his way back to his cruiser with hurried steps, leaning his head down to speak into his shoulder mounted radio.

"Ten-Eighteen, we've got a bird in the water, three hundred metres north-north-west. Roman Torchwick is suspected to be on board. Repeat: Roman Torchwick is suspected to be on board."

* * *

"I'm sorry sir, I was told to wait until Professor Ozpin got here," Jaune told the officer.

He sighed. "Any idea when he's getting here?"

"Uh." Jaune looked at the door. "Now?"

The door opened, and indeed, Ozpin stepped through. Shortly behind him followed Qrow and Ms. Goodwitch.

"Students," he addressed, "Are you alright?"

"Just some bumps and bruises, sir," Ruby explained.

"Good. Glynda, please escort them to the bullhead and take them back to Beacon." He paused for a moment in consideration. "And please show Mr. Wukong to the guest dorms."

"Yes sir," Ms. Goodwitch answered. "Students, follow me."

"Ozpin! They haven't-" The police chief went to protest, but Ozpin stopped him with a placating hand.

"Chief, my students have just suffered a terribly stressful ordeal, and being cooped up in the police station surely isn't helping. I assure you that I will have their statements delivered to you before midday tomorrow. Please, let them rest. Besides, we have more… pressing matters to deal with."

The police chief ran a hand through his graying hair. "Fine. Let's get this done now then."

"Of course. Qrow, you're with me."

The police chief led the pair deeper into the station.

"Take care, kid," Qrow whispered as he passed by Ruby.

"You too uncle Qrow," she whispered back.

"Quickly now, students. I'm sure you're eager for rest," Ms. Goodwitch said.

The students trailed out of the facility as Qrow, Ozpin, and the police chief headed towards the interrogation rooms. They stopped at the third room, where armed guards stood on either side of the door.

The guards nodded at the police chief, and one reached forward to open the door.

"Oh _wow_," the single occupant of the room said mockingly, "am I _really_ so special that I get the Headmaster of _Beacon_ to come say hello to little old me?"

"Mr. Torchwick," Ozpin greeted politely, "Would you be so kind as to explain what you were doing at the docks earlier tonight?"

* * *

**Hey all!**

**Hurray, this chapter's actually edited! Unfortunately my main editor, Gotsh0cks was too busy to look at it, so some others on discord gave it a look in his place. Big thanks to all of them!**

**I've ended up changing the combat quite a lot here from canon, as unfortunately, RWBY's style doesn't translate well to writing, so I've done my best to try make it feel faster, less flashy, and a bit more varied than just standard kicks and swings. This is something I wanted to do with Blake, as in canon, her attacks, while impressive, are relatively simple, so I actually made her use her weapon as a kusarigama, with moves inspired by a mobile game called Shadow Fight 2. You'll never see a real kusarigama fighter use their weapon like Blake does, as they throw around the flail section of the weapon, which Blake doesn't actually have.**

**Also, turns out that _all of my italics in the last 4 chapters didn't get added_, but that's fixed now, so (last chapter especially) reads a lot better.**

**That's all for this week, so thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter H3ctic4328 for updates, teasers, and other stuff! If you want early notice on delays, new chapters, etc. it's the best place to be! Alternatively, come say hi on Discord! I'm active pretty much every day over at discord. gg/thehoard**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**


	9. Chapter 9

Weiss stared down at her scroll, squinting from the near-blinding brightness of the screen in the dark of the balcony.

_They found Blake. She left when they turned violent._

She'd read the message at least a dozen times (likely many more), and yet she couldn't look away.

The biting cold of the night air was harsh on her throat as she took deep, shuddering breaths. It hurt all the worse knowing she had no one to blame but herself.

Wasn't this why she had come to Beacon? To prove to herself that she was more, that she was _better_ than her father? And yet, prejudice had coloured her perception. She had taken one look at that faunus boy and immediately believed the worst of him. She'd criticised and attacked until she drove Blake to divulging a dangerous secret.

She'd driven away the first people she truly considered friends.

She had _failed_, utterly and miserably.

"Weiss..?"

She whipped around with a startled gasp. "Pyrrha," she returned shakily. "What-what are you doing up here?"

"Looking for you," she answered with a soft smile.

"Pyrrha, I… I'm sorry. What I said, it was _so _wrong. I saw Ren's message and I've been working on fixing it and I just- I just don't want to be like _him_."

"Weiss," Pyrrha said gently, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder gently.

"I know what I said was terrible," she continued, voice wavering, "I _know _and I want to fix it but I don't know if I _can_,"

"Weiss..." Pyrrha said again, her voice growing firmer.

"I know I've been a terrible leader - I thought I knew, I thought I was ready, but I'm _not_ and I'm always so scared that I'll make a mistake and that one of you will get _hurt_-"

"Weiss!" Pyrrha interrupted, placing her other hand on Weiss' other shoulder and spinning her so they were face to face.

Weiss gasped as Pyrrha pulled her into a hug. "That's not true," she denied. "The leader I know is smart, and brave, and strong, and I'm so grateful to have her as a friend."

Weiss tried, but it was a losing battle from the very beginning. Tears sprung forth from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, as she held on to her partner desperately.

"I know you didn't mean to cause what happened, and I'm so, so sorry that I brushed off what had happened to you. Regardless of what you said, that was wrong of me, and I hope that you can forgive me." Pyrrha's face had settled into a mournful expression. It wasn't a plastic smile, a fabricated frown, not a fake like what Weiss was used to; it was pure, sincere regret.

"No, Pyrrha, you don't need to apologise. I needed to hear it," Weiss hurriedly refuted.

"I _do_," Pyrrha said, holding Weiss tighter. "I'm sorry," she said again, "I'm sorry I pushed you away, I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, and most of all, I'm sorry you didn't feel comfortable telling us before," Pyrrha said earnestly, tears brimming in her own eyes, "You think you've been a bad leader, but I think the truth is that _I've_ been a bad partner," she finished shakily.

"No! No, Pyrrha, _no_. You've been a wonderful partner, and I wouldn't have anyone else."

Pyrrha sniffed. "Look at us," she said, "Now we're _both _crying. I think this is about as far away as is possible from what I wanted when I came out here."

Weiss gave a wet laugh. "I'm not sure that's entirely correct," she whispered, holding tightly. "Thank you Pyrrha, for being my friend."

"Thank you Weiss, for being mine," she whispered back.

They stayed that way for a few minutes more, giving themselves time to reign in their rampant emotions.

"What are you going to do now?" Pyrrha asked, pulling away. There was no question as to what she was referring to.

"I'm going to make things right."

* * *

"Would you be so kind as to explain what you were doing at the docks earlier tonight?"

Roman rolled his eyes. "Do you _really_ expect me to just cough up all the juicy details?" he sneered.

"You're a selfish man, Roman," Qrow said factually, his arms crossed as he leaned against the back wall.

"That I am," he affirmed with a small nod.

"And you mean to tell me that you wouldn't rat out those guys for even a chance at a lighter sentence?" Qrow continued.

Roman laughed. "Oh, I _would_, if I even remotely believed that I wouldn't get taken out before I could finish saying 'freedom'."

Ozpin leant forward, interlocking his fingers as he placed his elbows on the table. "They say there is no honour among thieves, but I daresay you're the exception to that, Mr. Torchwick. You steal and rob, but the most damage you've left is broken windows and small bruises. We can keep a man like you protected, should you cooperate."

Roman snorted. "Maybe from the general riff-raff, but not from _her_."

Qrow stiffened and Ozpin straightened. "_Her,_ Mr. Torchwick?"

"Yes, _her_. If she finds out I gave up _anything_, she'll burn my ass to a crisp. And I do mean that literally." Roman glanced up at the camera in the corner of the room warily. "You have _no_ idea what she's capable of."

Ozpin's eyebrows furrowed in thought, then a moment later he lowered his hands below the table once more and turned to the police chief. "Wipe the tapes of our discussion up until this point," he instructed, before turning back to Roman.

"Come now Mr. Torchwick, surely you know the position you are in. If you cooperate, I assure you that you will get a much lighter sentence," Ozpin offered.

Roman offered a subtle, but grateful, look. "You're not getting _anything_ from me; I'm no snitch," he lied.

Ozpin sighed loudly. "I'm not quite sure what you expect, Mr. Torchwick. I can say with certainty that you won't be getting out. In a station filled with police, and two professional Huntsmen? You wouldn't have a chance."

Roman glared at him silently.

Ozpin watched him for a moment, but his gaze didn't falter.

He sighed again, before standing from his chair. "I don't think we'll be making any headway tonight. It would appear he's adamant in his declaration."

The police chief blinked in surprise. "We've barely started!" he protested. He had caught on to Ozpin's wordplay quickly, and while he was playing his role excellently, the indignation seemed real.

"And it is late," Ozpin countered. "The children are not the only ones who've had a challenging evening. He will still be here tomorrow, and we can continue then. With coffee," he added, as an afterthought.

The police chief groaned. "I wouldn't say no to some coffee," he admitted. "Fine, fine. We continue tomorrow first thing. Do _not_ make me regret this, Ozpin," he stated, pointing a finger at the man.

"You won't," Ozpin claimed.

And then, one by one, they left Roman to his cell.

Roman suppressed a grin. "Devious old bastard," he muttered.

* * *

"Jaune?" Ruby asked, startling him slightly, "Are you okay?"

He nodded, the action pulling the last of his consciousness out from the reach of his Semblance and back into his body. "Yeah," he told her with a strained smile, "Still just tired."

She nodded back wearily, her eyelids drooping. "Me too," she said softly, leaning against his side as she slowly lowered her head down onto his shoulder. In moments, she was asleep.

Gods, he wanted to put his arm around her. That wasn't weird right? He was a normal(ish) guy and she was a pretty girl resting her head on his shoulder, so it wasn't weird that he wanted to hold her, surely.

Gathering his courage, he slowly, cautiously lifted his arm from beneath her, freezing at every sleepy mumble, before eventually, he lay his arm gently across her small shoulders.

She murmured softly in her sleep, then leaned into the warmth of his side, stretching her arm over his midsection to embrace him, a soft smile spreading across her lips.

Warmth filled his chest (and not just where her arm rested). He looked across the bullhead to the other three students. They were all asleep. Blake sat in the middle, chin against her chest. Yang was to her right, and Sun to her left, both leaning their heads against Blake.

Jaune smiled affectionately. He was incredibly happy that his team was back together. He wanted to join them in slumber, but something kept him awake.

A cold dread, flowing through his veins.

Who was 'She'?

* * *

It was a little over fifteen minutes after Ozpin and Qrow had left that the police station erupted in noise. Shouts and alarms blanketed the building in noise as panic spread within.

It started with their first attempt to interrogate one of the White Fang.

The man was spitting with rage, literally. He sprayed saliva with every hate filled word. They hadn't gotten so much of a name from him.

The officer leading the interrogation did her best to remain calm. "Sir, please. If you could just tell us what-"

"_YOU WON'T GET ANYTHING FROM ME, HUMAN SCUM!_" he screamed, his voice reverberating against the smooth cement walls, before he jumped to his feet, standing as tall as he could while the cuffs kept him chained to the cold steel table. "_AND YOU WON'T GET ANYTHING FROM MY BROTHERS! OUR CRUSADE CANNOT BE STOPPED! WE WILL BRING FORTH RIGHTEOUS FURY UPON ALL WHO HAVE WRONGED US!_"

He grinned maniacally, and his laughter turned hysterical. "_FOR THE GLORY OF THE WHITE FANG! EVEN IN DEATH WE STAND STRONG!_"

And then he started _thrashing_, laughing all the while. His legs gave out, and his head slammed against the table with a sickening crunch. His laughter gave way to nauseating gurgles, and he began frothing at the mouth like a rabid animal, convulsing against the table violently.

"Poison!" the officer shouted into her radio, "We need a medic _NOW!_"

And then came forth a horrifying echo.

"For the glory of the White Fang!"

The shouts of alarm and panic soon followed. And as though that were not enough, with a deafening boom, a wall _shattered_, brick and mortar scattering through the cell as alarms began to blare.

"Finally," Roman said hoarsely, as he coughed violently on the dust-filled air. "Did you take the scenic route here?"

In the breached wall stood a very short, lithe woman holding a floral parasol over her shoulder. She pouted at the accusation, and fluttered her eyelids at the captive criminal, her irises flickering between the same pink, white, and brown of her hair with every blink.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just get me outta here, Neo, and I'll buy you all the ice-cream you want tomorrow."

The girl remained silent, but she smiled with glee. She closed the parasol and stepped through the broken wall, sauntering over to Roman. With a lightning fast flick, the parasol struck and shattered the chain that kept him locked in place.

He stood, and took a cigar from Neo's left hand, and his cane, Melodic Cudgel, from the other. "I need to give you a raise," he told her, taking a moment to light the cigar and take a deep breath. He sighed in contentment.

_You don't even pay me_, the roll of her eyes seemed to say.

"Whatever," he muttered, a puff of smoke escaping his lips. "Let's get out of this shithole, already. Anyone expecting a show?"

She nodded.

He scoffed. "Of course. Those vultures are always ready."

He grabbed his bowler hat from the table and settled it on his head, cautious of the chains hanging from his wrists that could easily make a mess of his hair.

"Then let's go give them the best damn show they've ever seen."

* * *

Blake choked on air.

"Blake?" Yang asked with concern, "You okay?"

She received no response, only the faint sound of voices playing through her scroll.

Yang furrowed her eyebrows, before quickly walking to her to look over her shoulder.

"_WHAT?!_" she shouted in surprise.

Ruby darted over immediately, and Jaune crashed out of the bathroom, tugging a shirt down over his damp chest.

"What's the matter?!" Ruby asked.

Together, they all looked down at the scroll, the local news playing softly, until Blake increased the volume a moment later.

"_-were woken by another explosion, this time from the police station_," the news anchor said. Lisa something, if Blake remembered correctly. "_Some members of the press, there to report on the earlier incident at the docks, collected the following footage_."

On screen, through a light fog of dust, Roman Torchwick stepped into view, one hand on his hat, and the other holding his cane.

"_Good evening- sorry, _morning_ -ladies and gentlemen._" Roman flashed a bright smile as a short woman holding a parasol stepped out of the opening to stand beside him. "_While I'm ever so grateful for the hospitality, I'm afraid that I cannot stay. Riches to acquire, stores to rob, Dust to steal; I'm sure you know how it is. Ta-ta!"_

He turned to the girl with the multicoloured hair, and placed a hand, the one holding his cane, to the small of his back as he leaned down, offering a hand as though to ask her to dance.

"_If you would be so kind, my dear._"

She took his hand gracefully, and then they _shattered_. Glass-like shards rained down against the concrete pavement, before they began to dissolve into tiny motes of light that winked out of existence one by one.

They disappeared, as though never there in the first place.

The screen shifted away from the lingering shards and shouting police back to the news anchor.

"_Roman Torchwick had been captured mere hours earlier, along with fifty-three members of the White Fang, after a failed robbery of an SDC Dust shipment. While Roman Torchwick escaped, the police were dealing with another crisis._

_All fifty-three members of the White Fang had swallowed cyanide capsules hidden within false teeth, taking their own lives in order to escape interrogation._"

They all gasped in shock and horror.

An overpowering sensation of guilt pooled in Blake's stomach.

"_The Chief of Police of Southwestern Vale, Azraq Bisman, made this statement._"

The image switched again, this time to the man they'd seen briefly while at the station. He wore a dark suit, with a large, royal blue necktie hanging beneath his face. He stood at a small podium, cameras flashing and a half dozen microphones thrust up by his face.

"_This was a tragedy we never could have predicted. This loss of life is truly horrifying. To those of you of the White Fang watching this, as both the Chief of Police, and a citizen of this proud Kingdom, I implore you."_ He stared straight down the camera's lens. "_Please. Please do not take your life. Every life has meaning, has value. I beg of you, do not throw yours away. Thank you, no further questions._"

Blake dropped the scroll and darted into the bathroom. She fell to her knees and vomited into the toilet, bile burning against her throat as guilt and horror took root in her chest.

She retched again as Yang made her way over on shaky legs. Yang got down beside Blake, loosely taking hold of her hair and pulling it away from the toilet bowl.

Blake spat as she pulled away, her nausea subsiding. She briefly noted Jaune holding a shell-shocked Ruby.

"It's my fault," she croaked.

"It's not," Yang denied.

"_I_ got them caught. They _died_ because of what I did."

"And what if you hadn't?" Yang challenged, "What if you hadn't, and they went on and hurt someone else? They'd be caught eventually, Blake, and it would have turned out the same way."

"I… you're right," she admitted, "I just can't believe that they… they-they _killed_ themselves Yang! I never… I _never_ thought it would become this bad."

"Was… Was it different before?" Yang asked gently.

She wanted to say yes. She _wanted_ to, but was it really different? That devotion, that _fanaticism_, was it not there before she left? Or was it that, that pushed her away? Of course, the violence was what pushed her to act, but she'd known that she needed to get out far before then. Sun's assessment of it being a cult was far more accurate than he'd realised.

She couldn't. Couldn't tell her it was different, because it _wasn't_. The only thing that had changed was that they had the equipment they needed to prove the depth of their belief.

When she couldn't give an answer, Yang leant in and embraced her.

"It's just _awful_, Yang." She sniffed, a trail of warm and wet ran down her cheek. She was crying again. "It's just so _fucking _awful."

* * *

Jaune didn't like that he was leaving Ruby. She'd stopped crying, at least, but the deep sadness etched onto her face had yet to fade. He just had to trust that Yang would take care of her until he finished meeting with Ozpin.

He rode the elevator up, silently contemplating.

It was seriously fucked up, he could admit that easily. Fifty-fucking-three people, dead. And he was part of what drove them to it. He didn't blame himself, it was entirely their choice, but that didn't make it any less terrible.

"Mr. Arc," Professor Ozpin greeted as the door slid open. "I'm sorry to bring you here under such poor circumstances, but as I'm sure you heard yesterday, I need to retrieve your statements before Chief Bisman becomes even further displeased with me. Please, take a seat."

"Yeah," he said quietly, sitting in the offerec chair. "Can… can I deliver their statements for them? I know everything that happened. They… they're not taking the news well."

Ozpin sighed. "It's never easy," he said, "to carry such a burden. To believe yourself the cause of another's demise. Very well Jaune, I will allow you to deliver statements in their stead."

"Thank you."

Over the next twenty minutes, Jaune detailed the encounter. He repeated everything Blake had done, then went on to explain his, Ruby, and Penny's involvement.

Ozpin sat quietly, typing up notes and occasionally asking questions for clarification.

"Thank you Mr. Arc," Ozpin said as he finished typing up the last of his notes. "You've been a great help. I've already given your teachers warning that your team will not be attending class today. Please take care of your teammates, and should you need it, I can give you tomorrow off as well."

"Thanks Ozpin, but um… there's actually something I wanted to ask you."

The man blinked in surprise and motioned for him to continue.

This was risky, he knew, but he needed to know.

"Who… who is _She_?"

Ozpin froze.

"I-I was watching the security cameras when you went to interrogate Roman Torchwick. I'm sorry, I-I know I sh-shouldn't have been-"

"No, no," Ozpin interrupted rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly, "I've encouraged the use of your Semblance; I had foreseen this occurring at some point, though I had hoped it wouldn't be this soon. I will explain Jaune, please just give me a moment."

Jaune nodded. He didn't think he'd be able to speak any more without stumbling over his words.

Ozpin lifted his scroll from his desk and unlocked it, and placed it to his ear a moment later.

"_Oz? Need something?_" Qrow asked.

"Yes, would you please come to my office? Take the fast route, please."

Qrow sighed. "_Yeah alright, just a minute_," he said, before hanging up.

Ozpin then placed his scroll down on his desk again, and stood from his chair. He walked to a wall on Jaune's right, and slid open a window, then returned to his seat.

Not even a minute later up to the window flew a raven. It soared forward, straight through the open window, where in a small flash of light, it transformed into Qrow (the person). Qrow landed easily on his feet, but froze when he saw Jaune.

"Oh, we're doing this."

Okay, that whole transforming thing was completely badass, Jaune had to admit.

Qrow sniggered.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Yeeeep," Qrow answered, popping the 'p'.

That explained where Ruby got the habit from.

"Come, Qrow, take a seat yourself," Ozpin said, gesturing at the other chair besides Jaune.

Qrow walked over and flopped into the chair. "So what's this about?"

Ozpin sighed. "It would seem that Mr. Arc was using his Semblance to watch our interrogation of Mr. Torchwick."

"Ah."

"Real eloquent of you, Qrow." Jaune smirked at the man.

"Quite," Ozpin continued, amusement in his tone. "Now, Mr. Arc, I need you to understand that what I tell you next cannot leave this room. You cannot tell your family, your team, or even your partner. This is _very_ dangerous information, even moreso than your Semblance."

Jaune blanched.

"What's your favourite fairytale?"

* * *

**And done!**

_**Man **_**this chapter was angsty - I'm so not used to it. I just want them all to be happy D: But the plot demands it, must be done.**

**Hope the Fang part didn't bother anyone too much, I've been planning for them to be like this since very early in the story and you'll see why in the future ;)**

**If you follow me on Twitter ( H3ctic4328), you'd kniw there's a surprise coming next week, so you've got that to look forward to.**

**Anyway, follow me on Twitter for updates and stuff, or say hello at discord. gg/thehoard**

**I appreciate all the feedback you guys give.**

**Yours sincerely, H3ctic.**

**P.S. And because I nearly forgot, I'm publishing this on mobile right now, so please let me know if there are any mistakes, and I'll fix them next week.**


	10. Chapter 10

"Fairy tale?"

Ozpin nodded sagely. "Yes, Mr. Arc, fairy tale."

"I… I really don't see how this relates," he admitted.

"It's a common saying that at the heart of every legend, there is a grain of truth, so why would a fairy tale be any different? Of course, many a story is warped by time; bent and twisted with every retelling. However, some stand against the test of time far more intact than others. Are you familiar with the story of the four Maidens, Mr. Arc?"

Jaune shook his head.

"Then as there is much to talk of, I will keep it short. Long ago, buried away in the depth of a forest, sheltered from all the could do him harm, lived an old man. While he may have had all he needed to live on, he lacked compassion, love, and happiness.

One day, outside his humble house, he found a maiden, who introduced herself as Winter. He was... not _pleased_ to have her there, but did not contest her. Later, the maiden's sisters, Spring, Summer, and Fall, arrived one by one, and gradually, they improved the old man's life and well-being. They filled his days with laughter and joy, and so, when they were to leave, he decided to pay back their kindness.

Unbeknownst to the sisters, the old man was a Wizard, a practitioner of an art long forgotten. _Magic_. With all his strength, the old man gifted the Maidens with his Magic, and in return they vowed to visit him each year, to keep the life of their friend happy."

"And… you mean to tell me that the story is real?" Jaune asked skeptically.

"Almost entirely. While the Maidens of that story no longer live on, the power they carried does, transferring to another young maiden upon their death," Ozpin replied seriously. "A Maiden can conjure the elements at will, without the need for Dust nor aura. They bring forth howling storms and raging infernos with but a thought. Lightning, ice, and water all heed their call, responding to their will like technology does to yours, Mr. Arc. A Maiden fights with the will of the world behind her."

"O-oh, okay, um… Give-give me a minute to uh, re-establish my world view."

Qrow snorted, and clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "I felt that way too, when Oz told me. Felt pretty similar when I found out about _you_, actually."

"M-me?" he stammered.

"Yep. Your Semblance is kinda busted, kid," Qrow replied with a grin.

Jaune turned back to Ozpin. "I-I'm sorry, but I'm having some trouble believing _magic_ exists."

"Is it truly so strange?" Ozpin challenged, "Is it so strange that people have an unexplainable power? In fact, the world is already familiar with something not dissimilar. Some may even call it a _semblance_ of Magic. Why is it that you would challenge the existence of Magic, but not that of Semblances?"

Jaune couldn't answer that.

"Mr. Arc, you are a _very_ special case. Whilst just months ago I would say that no Semblance could compare to the strength of a Maiden, to the strength of _Magic_, I'd say that you may be the one to challenge that presumption."

Jaune ran a hand through his hair anxiously.

"Okay," he breathed, "Okay. Let's just say magic _does_ exist, what does that have to do with 'Her'?"

"Her name is Salem, and she is the Queen of the Grimm, and sworn enemy of mankind."

Jaune blinked. "Wow, okay. Queen of the Grimm. Got it. Yeah, okay, why not? So the Grimm are being controlled by this Salem woman and so she wants to collect the Maidens to wipe out mankind? Am I…" He took a shaking breath. "Am I on the right track here?"

"Precisely Mr. Arc. She is as cunning as she is old. She has worked from the shadows for centuries, all in the name of purging Remnant of sentient life. Myself, along with Qrow, and a small number of others, are the most recent in a long line of those who know this secret and have been fighting against Salem and her forces."

"So few?" Jaune asked curiously.

"Imagine, Mr. Arc, how the public would react should they learn that there is someone _controlling_ the Grimm, and that their aim is to destroy society as a whole," Ozpin said.

"They would panic," he realised. "Fear and uncertainty would spread through the populous, drawing in even more Grimm, and making Salem's job easier."

"Correct. That is why we limit ourselves to a small number of trusted individuals. I hope that you understand both the severity of this secret, and also why it must _remain_ one, even from your team."

Jaune sucked in a breath.

He didn't like it. Not at all. He didn't want to hide anything from them, but this was too big a burden for them to bear, especially when it was completely unnecessary. He knew that if he did tell them, it would only cause them grief.

"Okay," he conceded, "Okay Ozpin. I won't tell them."

"Thank you-"

"_But_," he interrupted, "I won't lie to them. If they ask the right questions, I'll give them the answer. I'll tell you, of course, but I refuse to lie to them."

Ozpin sighed. "I suppose that is all I can ask. I will not force you to do anything against your will. Beacon is very likely the safest place on the planet, so I ask that you continue your studies here, continue to improve, and continue to become wiser, until one day that you might decide to help us."

He was giving Jaune the choice. An out, if he wanted to take it.

"No," he denied, "This is my planet too, and I won't let her take everything that I have from me." Jaune took a deep breath, and gave Ozpin the most serious look he could muster. "I will fight her with everything I have to keep my friends, my family, and my team safe."

Ozpin stared at him for a moment, scanning for any sign of dishonesty. He found none. "You're a very brave young man, Jaune. Many would have hidden away, would have preferred living in ignorance, yet you offer what you can without hesitation. Very well, while I won't request anything dangerous of you for some time yet, there _is_ something you could do for me."

Jaune sat up straighter in his seat. "What is it?"

"I'm sure you're aware, based on last night's rather limited interrogation that Roman Torchwick's loyalty to whomever he follows is flimsy at best. If she gets her hands on the recordings of that cell, she may notice a bizarre lack of footage between when Qrow and I arrived, and when our interrogation 'began'. I think that, with your penchant for technology and skill in forgery-" Jaune choked on air. "-you would be best suited to make a more believable documentation."

Jaune scratched his cheek awkwardly. "You, uh… You knew about that, huh?"

Ozpin nodded, offering a small smile. "From the beginning. I will admit it _was_ very good, and as I said on the first day, you passed initiation, and as such, earnt your place here. Do you think you can do it, Jaune?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, yes. I'm done."

Ozpin blinked. "Done? What do you mea- Oh."

On his monitor, footage began to play. He knew it _must_ be doctored, though if he were not there to witness it himself, he never would have suspected it altered.

"I've already replaced the footage on the police database. I learnt from Atlas so it should be _much_ harder to detect any changes whatsoever," Jaune told him confidently.

"From Atlas?"

Jaune's eyes widened.

Oops.

"Ah, right," Ozpin continued. "I had thought that was you." He chuckled softly. "General Ironwood called me in something of a panic when he discovered that his secure, isolated facility had been breached. I confessed that it may have been a student of mine, but that did not stop him from spearheading a new program to combat it happening in the future."

Jaune winced. He hoped he wouldn't have to meet this general. He had a feeling the man wouldn't be pleased with him.

"What was your aim with your little excursion, if I may ask?"

Jaune swallowed anxiously. "I um, I was thinking in class that a lot of the information about Grimm was derived from experience, rather than by writing, so I thought that if I could compile a lot of that experience based knowledge, it would be much more beneficial to Huntsmen and civilians alike, but if you need to the information urgently, you either don't have time to type in the name, or you don't _know_ the name, so I figured the best way around that was image recognition," Jaune explained, his nervous tone quickly becoming animated as he spoke about his thought process.

"But image recognition software is rather hard to develop," Ozpin stated.

"Exactly, and in this circumstance, needs to be incredibly accurate. If you take a picture of a Beowulf and it tells you it's an Ursa, it's gonna tell you the wrong information, and potentially get you killed."

"So you broke into Jimmy's secret base to make the best damn software you could, yeah?" Qrow summarised.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"If I may, Jaune, how do you plan to get all of this 'experience based knowledge'?" Ozpin asked.

"From Huntsmen," he answered. "I'm hoping that people will start adding their own information, and if others validate it as true, it will be added as official information. I'm hoping to get it far enough that it becomes entirely self sufficient, with an endlessly expanding knowledge base made by and for, Huntsmen."

Ozpin nodded. "A very admirable goal. Well, I won't hold you here any longer. You may return to your dorms and inform your team that they have the day off."

Jaune nodded in return and stood from his seat. "Thanks, Ozpin."

"Actually, Mr. Arc, thank _you_. Now please, go and take care of your team, they will thank you for it."

"I will," Jaune affirmed, before turning to the other man. "Later Qrow."

Qrow looked to him, tossing an arm over the back of his seat and leaning his head in his direction. He gave him a grin, and offered a little, two-fingered salute. "Later kid."

With that, he left, and in a few minutes he was back in his dorm.

"Hey," Yang greeted, "You good? You were gone for a while there."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Ozpin let me do your guys' statements for you," he answered.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled gratefully. "Thanks Jaune. I appreciate it, and I know they will too."

"How are they?"

"Better," she answered. "Not good, but better. You sure that was all you did up there? You sure took your sweet time," she joked.

"Actually, Ozpin told me that magic is real and then he invited me to a secret group to prevent the end of the world."

Yang snorted, batting her arm against his chest playfully. "Sarcastic ass. C'mon, Ruby's been missing you."

Ruby was laying on his bed staring up at the underside of her bed. She looked tired.

"Hey," he greeted softly.

"Hey," she whispered in return.

Jaune narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment. "Shove over," he instructed.

Ruby blinked in surprise, and turned to look at him. "What?"

"Shove over," he repeated, before he started clambering into the bed himself.

Ruby hurriedly pushed herself out of the way as he flopped down on the sheets face first. He huffed into his pillow. "So tired," he moaned, "I had to sit there recounting what we did for _ages_. It was so boring."

Ruby giggled.

He rolled onto his back and stretched, pushing his toes as far out as he could reach and his arms as far back as they would go before they hit the wall. "I just wanted to go to bed," he whined. "Not to mention Ozpin is _super_ boring. We've got the day off, by the way," he told her, suddenly remembering. "Which means I get to sleep more," he cheered half-heartedly, laying his arms outwards, one dangling over the edge of his bed, and the other resting on his pillow just above Ruby's head.

He turned to Ruby. She was on her side now, looking at him with her arms held close to her chest and her knees half up. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly.

She shook her head slightly. "Not right now," she whispered.

"That's okay," he assured. "Do you want me to go?"

She shook her head again.

"Okay. Do you want to just stay here for a while?"

She nodded hesitantly.

He smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring. "We can stay here as long as you like." He lowered his arm and carefully pulled her closer.

She shuffled around, before she rested her head on his shoulder and cautiously stretched an arm over his chest. "Okay," she whispered.

He brought his arms together to hold Ruby close, and tilted his head to rest it against hers. "I'm here for you, Ruby."

She smiled weakly. "Thank you Jaune."

In minutes, they were asleep.

* * *

"Jaune!" Ruby called, getting right up close to him and bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly. "It's here!" she cheered.

He blinked in surprise, but couldn't help the grin that formed on his face. Her enthusiasm was infectious. "What's here?"

"Your weapon! Well, the parts are ready, so we can build it!"

"What, right now?"

"Yes right now!" she commanded. "We have to! I've been waiting _forever_ for it to be ready."

"Isn't it _my_ weapon? Shouldn't I be more excited than you?" he questioned, grinning.

"Then be more excited!" she told him. "Because I'm not gonna be _less_ excited!"

He laughed. "Alright, we can do it now."

"Yes!"

"So where are we headed?" he asked.

Instead of answering, she clasped his hand in hers and dragged him out of the dorm.

After a few minutes, they arrived at their destination: the combined forgery and workshop. Though Huntsman weaponry did not typically require maintenance, the more mechanically inclined students of Beacon often found themselves in the small wing of the campus dedicated to craftsmanship.

They entered, the air immediately and obviously much hotter than the air conditioned corridor, heat from the forges bleeding over into the assembly oriented rooms. Ruby guided them further back into the main room, around numerous busily working students, to one of the present members of staff.

The woman wore black pants and a dark crimson singlet that left her muscled arms on full display. She stood in the corner of the room, overlooking the students with her arms crossed. She looked at them as they approached.

"Ruby," she greeted in a gruff voice.

"Hi Ms. Carmine," Ruby returned with a smile. "You said the parts were ready?"

She nodded, and grunted an affirmative. "Complex as hell." She looked at him. Her irises were almost black, reflecting the residual light of the forges in a way that made them look as though a fire burned within them. "Yours?"

He gulped nervously, but nodded.

She grunted again. "It's good. Storage, fourth bay."

Nodding, Ruby pulled him away. "Thank you Ms. Carmine!"

She led him to a set of tan double doors, with the label 'Storage' above it. She released his hand and lugged them both open. Shelves lined both walls, extending about ten metres back. Close on the right hand side, about halfway down on the shelf, a laminated sign with the number 4 printed on it dangled.

Ruby reached down and pulled out a blue plastic tray. It clattered as it moved, the numerous metals pieces bouncing against one another.

Ruby handed him the tray with a grin, then picked up the second from next to where it had sat, then led him out of the small room to a vacant table, where she placed the worn tray down with a huff, and he placed his beside hers.

They gradually removed each piece from the trays and placed them on the table, the small springs and slides alongside the two large bladed pieces and a thick black tube. Ruby withdrew the blueprint and lay it on the tale beside the pieces, checking through to make sure nothing was missing.

Jaune looked between the carefully placed pieces and the blueprint. Back and forth, he gradually found piece after piece, and his weapon started forming in his mind.

"Right!" Ruby's excited voice broke him out of his concentration. "Everything's here. Ready to start?" She smiled brightly his way.

Jaune grinned back. "Yeah, let's do it."

They got to it, easily working in tandem after many, many team exercises. Each piece was carefully polished before being added to the steadily growing build. The sword slowly took form, and eventually, the final piece, the right half of the blade, clicked into place.

Jaune marvelled at his weapon.

The long steel blade shone in the soft light; a barely visible line ran up parallel to the edge, and about three centimetres in. Ten centimetres up from the hilt was his emblem, a pair of shining gold (well, actually it was brass) arcs decorated the blade. They wouldn't be of any use in combat, but neither would they be a hindrance.

Below the arcs, the bladed edge stopped and thinned, as though cut away. Built into the left side of this cut was a picatinny rail, and on the right it was simply squared. The hilt itself was strangely thick, thicker even than the blade itself, and the crossguard was oddly unbalanced. One side, the left, looked like what a typical triangular steel crossguard would look like, whilst the other side was a carbon fiber tube that extended around ten centimetres before pointing down and flattening to form a stock.

Beside it sat the final 'piece'. The scope. Made from carbon nanotubes with strengthened glass lenses, it could take a beating before it was damaged, though he'd typically leave it off to remove the chance of it happening. Though that did mean he'd need somewhere to keep it. Likely on a belt. And he'd also need somewhere to store ammunition.

Oh gods, he needed a new outfit.

Ruby hugged his side, giggling excitedly.

"It's done!" she cheered, "And it looks so cool!"

He couldn't keep the wide smile from his face. "Yeah. It does, doesn't it?"

"So," Ruby began seriously. "What are you going to name it?"

He hadn't thought of that, though he probably should have. Every Huntsman weapon had a name. Crescent Rose, Gambol Shroud, Ember Celica; each had a name as unique as it was, and his deserved the same.

He looked at Crocea Mors, then his new weapon. It was now the start of _his_ journey. No longer would he be restricted to a weapon of the past, but instead he would form new memories with a weapon that was his own.

Jaune blinked.

That was an idea.

"Memoria Auri," he said.

Memory of gold.

Looking at Ruby's bright smile, he knew for certain that he'd never forget this moment.

* * *

The Daily Valean:

The Brand-New App that Every Huntsman Needs

Written by Emma Indigo

Just yesterday, a new app hit the digital Marketplace, and it has taken the world by storm. Within the first four hours, it was topping the charts for both downloads and reviews, and now sits at an astonishing 1.4 million installations and a 9.8/10 rating.

This app is simply called: the Grimmdex.

Published by a company of the same name, the Grimmdex calls itself 'The go-to for all the Grimm knowledge you'll ever need'. A bold claim to be sure, but based on the response of numerous Huntsmen across Remnant, it may be a correct one.

The Grimmdex boasts an extensive library of detailed information on all known species of Grimm, nothing we haven't seen before, but what truly sets it apart from the competition is the manner in which information is displayed, and most impressively, some incredibly accurate image recognition software.

Take out your scroll, and point it at a Grimm, and within moments it will bring you to the page for that species of Grimm. Following that, it gives you a simple prompt: 'Are you in danger?'

If no, it will return you to the page, where you can view detailed information on the species' strengths, weaknesses, habits, strategies to fight them, and much much more.

If yes, it will instead display a highly condensed page, free of distractions like images and pleasant formatting that really help the full pages feel fleshed out. On these pages are the bare essentials. How to fight it, and how to run from it.

We have received reports from dozens of Huntsmen and civilians alike heralding the app as a life-saver.

As though such readily available information was not enough, the developers added another feature that has Huntsmen the world over weeping in joy. By typing in your Huntsman License ID, the app will recognise you as a legitimate Huntsman, and will allow you to submit your own information to be added to their database.

In order to prevent misinformation from being spread, any information that is added must be verified as true by 5 other Huntsmen, where it will then be included on the page as 'Unconfirmed' information. Should it get confirmation by another 10 Huntsmen, it will be shifted into 'Rumoured', and at a total of 50, into 'Confirmed' information.

In just the day since its release, the Grimmdex's database has over doubled in size in just the 'Confirmed' information section. Strategies to fight in teams, and with different team compositions, different weapons, habitual behaviour, how best to avoid them as a civilian, how to deal with large numbers, how to draw their attention away; the list goes on and on.

It may be rather presumptuous for me to say, but I really believe that this app will be considered nearly as important to a Huntsman as their weapon is.

This is Emma Indigo for the Daily Valean, signing off.

_Published 13/10/104 - 10:36am_

* * *

**Another chapter done!**

**I've gotta keep this short, as I've got to go in just a minute!**

**I'm part of a brand new Discord server, specifically for RWBY. It's new, so expect a couple issues, but I'm hoping it will grow into an awesome place! If enough of you join, I'll be able to make it so I can notify any of you there whenever I post a chapter! You can join at discord. gg/mkQrr9j**

**Otherwise, follow me on Twitter at H3ctic4328, and you can always find me over at discord. gg/thehoard**

**See you all tomorrow!**


	11. Interlude 1

**Happy Halloween!**

* * *

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted.

She woke slowly. "Waz 'appnin?" she slurred.

"You need to get up!" he ordered, tossing a clean uniform at her as she pushed herself up with her elbows behind her. "We're going to be late! Class is in fifteen minutes!"

She turned her head to look at her clock and found that 8:45 displayed on its face.

"_WHAT_?!"

She hurriedly slipped out of her covers and out of her bed. She stumbled as her feet struck the floor, but Jaune caught her by the shoulders before she could land on her face. She shot him an appreciative look before darting into the bathroom to change.

"Yang said she thought you could use a bit of extra sleep," Jaune explained, talking loudly to be heard through the door. "We've all seen how tired you've been with the new leadership classes you have with Ozpin. She tried to call you but your scroll was on silent, so I came back to check on you and bring you to class. Mrs. Goodwitch sent out a message saying that it would be in 13D instead - A special guest, I think."

13D? That was on the other side of the campus! She had to hurry!

She pushed the door of the bathroom open and hopped out, still tugging a shoe onto her left foot. She huffed a breath. "Okay, I'm ready."

No sooner than the words were out of her mouth than Jaune grabbed hold of her hand and tugged her out of their dorm. "C'mon! We've only got five minutes left!"

Ruby struggled to keep her feet beneath her as they ran down the hall towards their classroom, her body still waking up.

She pulled her scroll from her pocket and turned on the screen. It took her a few seconds, but she eventually managed to catch the time- 8:57am -despite the bouncing of her steps. She pushed herself to run faster, her shoes slamming against the ground as they ran past numerous other students.

With not even a minute to spare, they arrived at 13D, their classroom for today's combat training. Jaune threw open the door and dragged her into the dark room.

Wait, why were the lights off?

"Surprise!" a half dozen voices shouted.

The lights flickered on to reveal Yang, Blake, and Team Spring stood behind a plastic table, piled high with gifts and a large cake, and decorated with streamers and balloons, along with a paper banner that read 'Happy Birthday Ruby!'

Oh, it was a surprise birthday party.

When had they set this up? How- Wait.

IT WAS HER BIRTHDAY!

She gaped at them, utterly lost for words, until Jaune gave her hand (that she now realised was still clasped in his) a squeeze.

"Happy birthday, Ruby," he said, smiling brightly at her.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed excitedly, pressing her face into his chest as she hugged him tightly, the elation bubbling through her enough to push away her embarrassment at being in such close proximity to her partner.

He laughed and hugged her back.

"Ruby!" Yang called excitedly, making her way around the table and towards them.

"Yang!" Ruby called back, releasing Jaune and embracing her sister. Giggles returned to the surface as Yang lifted her from the ground and spun, joy filling her being. She gasped a breath as her feet hit the ground again, smiling so wide her cheeks hurt.

But wait, what about class? Weren't they going to be late?

"It's a Saturday," she realised.

Yang laughed. "Just figured that out, did you?"

"I can't believe… How long have you been planning this?" she asked.

Yang tilted her head, humming thoughtfully. "Two- three weeks?" she answered hesitantly. "I had the idea about a month ago, but Weiss did most of the planning. Jaune had the idea of waking you up 'late' though."

Ruby disappeared in a flurry of crimson petals, reappearing a moment later with her arms around Weiss.

Weiss gasped and jumped, but Ruby remained firmly attached. "Thank you, Weiss," she said sincerely with a blinding smile. "I doubt this'd be happening if it was just Yang trying to plan it."

"Hey!"

Weiss turned her nose up in an attempt to appear stoic, though a smile tugged at her lips.

"I'm sure she'd have managed to set _something_ on fire in the process." She smiled kindly. "Happy birthday, Ruby."

She went through everyone else, offering her thanks, a hug, and a bright smile.

"Do you want to do gifts first?" Yang asked.

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered.

She went through them one at a time. Nora and Ren had gotten her a not-so-small collection of Weapons Weekly magazines, Weiss some high grade dust to make munitions from, while Pyrrha had instead chosen to bake the cake herself and given a size-too-big Pumpkin Pete hoodie.

With Team Spring's gifts done, she moved onto the three remaining. First was Blake's. She pulled away the bright wrapping paper from the rectangular object, and then she gasped.

"Tales of Remnant," she whispered, reading the title of the book aloud. Her gaze jumped to Blake, her expression filled with shock.

"I remember when we first met," Blake began. "You told me about how Yang always used to read you fairy tales, so I asked her which book they were from and-oomph!"

Ruby collided with her at speed, wrapping her in a hug. "Thank you," she whispered. "This means a lot to me."

Blake returned the hug. "You guys mean a lot to _me_, it's only natural that I show you just how important you are."

Ruby giggled softly. "Thank you, Blake.

She stepped away from her and reached for another gift. This time, it was Yang's.

"A hairbrush?" she asked as the gift was revealed.

"Yeah," Yang affirmed. "I figured that since you're in Beacon now, I can't keep baby-ing you. You're grown up and I need to accept that. I used to love brushing your hair for you when we were kids, but do you remember how you would always ask to do mine?"

"Yeah," Ruby answered, nostalgia creeping into her voice. "You'd never let me though."

"Well that's what that is for. Since I'm the old frail one, I'll need you to brush my hair for me. But don't you dare pull it!" she ordered.

"Yang…" Ruby whispered, her voice clouded with emotion.

"But don't worry, even if I _am_ old and frail, you can still rely on your big sister!"

The sisters hugged, and Ruby sniffled softly. "I love you, Yang."

"Love you too, sis."

After a minute to recollect herself, she detached from Yang.

"S-sorry," she said with an awkward laugh. "I wasn't expecting all these thoughtful gifts."

Finally, she picked up his gift. She removed the packaging, and lifted the lid from the small box. Then, she gasped. Carefully, a small rendition of her emblem, dangling from a thin golden chain was lifted from the box. A pair of earrings.

"I made them," Jaune explained. "They've got a tracker, and can transmit and receive radio signals in a small area, so if you're ever in danger, and you lose your scroll, we'll still be able to find you."

"Th-thank you," she stammered, her cheeks flushing. She looked at Jaune, and dashed over to give him another hug. "Thank you, Jaune. I love them."

Warmth pooled in his gut. Seeing her this happy made him feel incredible.

"You guys start on the cake and stuff!" she said as she pulled away. "Yang, could I talk with you for a minute?" Yang nodded. "Okay, we'll be back in just a minute!"

Ruby grabbed hold of Yang's hand and tugged her out of the room and down the hall, before into a deserted classroom.

"So what did you wanna talk about sis?" Yang asked as they finally stopped.

"I-I-I th-think I'm in l-love with Jaune."

Yang blinked, then smirked. "Oh, you finally figured it out, huh?"

"_What?!_ You _knew?!_" Ruby shouted in alarm.

Yang snickered. "Yeah sis, it's pretty obvious. I knew you had the hots for him since the day you guys met."

Ruby splutter. "I did _not _have th-the 'hots' for him!"

"Keep telling yourself that baby sis. Your eyes were practically glued to him, and you blushed everytime he so much as looked at you."

Ruby released a strangled squeak, her face a bright red as embarrassment flooded her.

"Yeah," Yang said, pointing at her, "Like _that_."

Ruby groaned, collapsing down to her knees and hiding her face in her hands.

"What do I do Yang?" she asked, her voice muffled. "I like him so much and I want to tell him but even thinking about it makes me feel like I'm gonna explode!"

Yang laughed. "Don't you worry sis, I have a feeling that everything's gonna be ju-ust fine."

* * *

"I'm in love with Ruby," he blurted.

Yang turned to him. "Oh, yeah, I know. What's your point?"

Jaune blinked in surprise. "Uh- I… um. I'm sorry, you _knew?_"

Yang nodded. "Yeah. You're not very subtle about it. I think everyone except her knows."

"Oh, wow. Okay."

Yang snickered. "Uh-huh. So? Why are you telling me?"

"I um. Tomorrow. After the surprise party? I… I want to ask her out on a date," he answered nervously.

"And you're, what, asking for my permission?"

He nodded.

Yang sighed. "This is probably where I should give the whole 'if you hurt her, I hurt you' protective big sister talk, right?" Yang smiled kindly. "But Jaune, I already know you'd never hurt Ruby. Do you remember what I told you during initiation?"

"Uh, something along the lines of not living to the next day?"

She rolled her eyes. "Before that. I told you to look after her. As much as it scares me, Ruby's growing up, and quickly. I'm not going to be able to stay beside her for the rest of our lives. But I think you _could_, Jaune. I think you're a great guy, and I think you could make Ruby _really_ happy. So, if you need help with something, just, let me know yeah? I already consider you a part of the family." She stepped forward and wrapped him in a hug.

Jaune gasped, before eventually returning the hug. "I uh, _wow_. Thank you Yang, I just… Thank you. That, uh, that means a lot to me."

Yang smiled, and pulled away. "Alright, enough of that mushy stuff. What's your plan?"'

Jaune nodded. "Right. Okay, so I was thinking-"

* * *

"Sorry guys, have fun!"

Yang turned and shot him a wink, before hurrying after Blake.

"And she says I'm not subtle," Jaune muttered.

"What was that, Jaune?" Ruby asked curiously.

"O-oh, um. Nothing."

She gave a suspicious hum, but didn't push further. "Well, I guess we can still have some fun, even if they ditched us."

He laughed. "Yeah."

Ruby started off down the pathway, taking in the Halloween decorations that filled the street.

"I really like my birthday," she began. "Not just because, like, it's my birthday, but because it's Halloween too."

"Yeah?" he asked. "Did you go trick-or-treating?"

"Every year." she giggled. "I always used to steal the best candies from Yang 'because it's my birthday' and she couldn't really contest that."

Jaune laughed again. "My family and I lived in a pretty small town, my dad was the only Huntsman there, actually, so there weren't many kids apart from us. We often managed to get home with _heaps_ of candy. Jade and Hazel, the twins, are a couple years younger than me, and they would _always_ fight on who had the most. They'd make Saphron, she's the oldest, count them out for each of them to make sure it was fair."

Ruby giggled. "I can't imagine having to live with seven sisters. Just having _one_ is hard enough."

Jaune smiled. "Yeah, I was third oldest, and they were always a handful, but I love them." His smile turned saddened. "I miss them too."

Ruby bumped against his side lightly. "I really got lucky, getting to come here with Yang. Even if she's annoying like, half the time, I love her to bits. It'd totally suck if I'd come here by myself, especially considering I wouldn't have met you!"

Jaune's breath caught in his throat as Ruby smiled up at him.

She was so beautiful.

He swallowed nervously and stopped.

"Jaune?" Ruby called inquisitively as she stopped a step later and turned to face him.

It was now or never.

"Hey, um, did you… Did you want to go see a movie or something?"

Ruby blinked. "But, Yang and Blake just left, and they won't be back for-"

"No," he interrupted. "I mean… I mean just us. Just you and me."

Her eyes widened. "O-oh," she stammered, her cheeks flushing. "Li-like a d-date?"

His face burned, but he managed a nod.

Ruby gasped. "I… I-I-I…"

Words failed her. Her hands clasped together, held low with her shoulders hunched in, face down in an attempt to hide the bright red colouring.

She nodded.

Relief and hope flooded through Jaune. "You do?"

"Y-yeah," she answered. "I-I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

"G-great! Awesome! I… Sorry, I um, I didn't really think about what I'd do once I got to this part," Jaune explained.

Ruby giggled softly. "How about we go to the cinema then?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, let's do that."

Ruby smiled and stepped over to him, slipping her hand into his.

"Lead the way, Jaune."

* * *

They exited the cinema a couple hours later.

"And then it was like ka-pow and psh-ah and-" Ruby made what he assumed were explosion noises, waving her one of hands around excitedly. The other was still held in his. "It was so cool!"

Jaune laughed.

Ruby turned and pouted at him. "Are you laughing at me?" she demanded.

"No, no!" he denied. "I'm sorry but you're just so cute!"

Ruby spluttered in surprise, and her face went red. She batted an arm against his chest. "Meany."

They slowly made their way back to Beacon in the twilight, chattering and laughing about the action-filled film they'd watched. They boarded a bullhead, and sat down in the seats, hands still linked.

Ruby leaned her head against his shoulder, sighing in contentment.

"Thank you, Jaune," she whispered. "This has been the best birthday ever."

"I had a lot of fun too," he returned. "Do you… Do you think we could do this again?"

Ruby smiled. "I'd like that."

Jaune smiled back, and they spent the rest of the flight in silence, content to be in each other's company.

Upon arriving, they walked through the empty halls of the academy back to their dorm, before stopping outside.

"I guess we're home," Jaune breathed.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "I… To be honest, I don't want it to end."

"Me neither. But it's late, and um, we could always continue in the morning?" Jaune offered.

"That sounds like a good idea," Ruby said, smiling brightly, before she turned to him.

She stepped forward, her arms reached out and took hold of his shirt. She pulled him forward and down, and she stood tall on the tips of her toes.

Her lips pressed against his.

"Goodnight Jaune," she whispered, pulling away a moment later with a bright red face. She disappeared into the room with push from her Semblance, leaving Jaune in the corridor, dumbstruck.

Wow.

He was so, utterly in love with Ruby Rose.


End file.
